Dark Asper or light Asper that is the dilemma, lol.

[A&M Gecko]

I'de like to have your vote on this, I prefer the dark Asper.
Alberto

 

[Road Warrior]

There both real cool looking but I have to agree and would pick the darker one. Nice pic

 

[sbrech]

i like both !

i like both colors, but i think the most gecko lovers would not care about that, they would say, just give the asper to me !!!

Well i think that you, ( same like me ) love different color mutations of geckos and so thats why we like both colors ( by thinking what comes out by breeding them) ?

regards stefan
PS. sorry for the big sized picture !

 

[KelliH]

I guess if I had to pick I would pick the light one. They look like a different colored amyae. Are there any differences other than color? I think I read somewhere that asper get a little larger.

 

[A&M Gecko]

I guess if I had to pick I would pick the light one. They look like a different colored amyae. Are there any differences other than color? I think I read somewhere that asper get a little larger.

Is the other way around, amyaes get bigger. Yes, they are exactly like amyaes in shape, the only difference is color, size and most important rarity,
Alberto

 

[JasonKaline]

Asper

I definately prefer the light Asper.

Jason Kaline

 

[frillman]

Asper

Heck, I would be happy with either of them, but if forced to choose I prefer the lighter version.

 

[jenn_jeffery]

I like the light one as well...

 

[robin d.]

i must be the weird one because i love the look for the dark one. alberto, do you kniw if any physical characteristsics other than size that make them different? like scalation, head shape or eye location? i wonder if the asper are a true ssp. or if they are more of a locality of amyae or shoot ever for that fact amyea a ssp of asper?
cool geckos

 

[A&M Gecko]

i must be the weird one because i love the look for the dark one. alberto, do you kniw if any physical characteristsics other than size that make them different? like scalation, head shape or eye location? i wonder if the asper are a true ssp. or if they are more of a locality of amyae or shoot ever for that fact amyea a ssp of asper?

No Robin, you are not the weird one, I stated the same in my first post, I like the dark one as well. Robin, I will be able to tell you more about the difference when I receive my pair of Asper, they are not in my hands yet and cannot compare them with Amyaes up close. The more technical stuff, I am afraid I am not qualified to say that Aspers are ssp of Amyaes or the other way around. I think that Australians are the only ones that can research that fact up close.
Regards Alberto
PS: hope your eyes are doing better.

 

[frillman]

Amyae

Up until 1994 N. Asper was regarded as a species with various phenotypes, differing in size color and spinosity. Couper & Gregson(1994) then published the description of N. asper together with the description of N amyae and N. sheai. The N. amyae is the largest representation of the Nephrurus genus. So basically everything use to be N. asper until 1994 when they where classified into three sub-species. N amyae is the most common, a select few have N. asper, and I don't know of anybody outside of Australia with N. Sheai.

 

[BGR.CC]

Hi Robin,

The asper complex consists of amyae, asper, and sheai. The three species are not only geographically distinct but also have numerous scalation and body measurement differences. The easiest ways to distinguish the species are by size, spinosity, and digit banding.

N. asper is the smallest gecko within the group, followed by N. sheai, then by N. amyae which is the largest

N. amyae is extremely spinose in the rump and thigh region, whereas N. asper and N. sheai are only moderately spinose

N. sheai is distinguishable from both N. asper and N. amyae by the strong brown and white banding on its toes

These are the easiest ways to distinguish the three species without having any locality information.

Of course, N. amyae are the most common in captive collections. N. asper are in a handful of collections and,as far as I know, N. sheai are only in a couple collections in Europe.

Regards,
Michael

 

[KelliH]

N. amyae is extremely spinose in the rump and thigh region, whereas N. asper and N. sheai are only moderately spinose

Michael-

Can you either post a pic or direct me to a photo of N. sheai? Someone once told me there was a banded form of asper, I was curious if these were the sheai.

Thank you very much for your input here.

 

[A&M Gecko]

Can you either post a pic or direct me to a photo of N. sheai? Someone once told me there was a banded form of asper, I was curious if these were the sheai.

HI KELLI
THE ONLY PLACE I HAVE SEEN PICS OF THOSE IS ON A BOOK CALLED "REPTILES OF AUSTRALIA" FROM STEVE WILSON & GERRY SWAN. MIKE TOLD ME ABOUT THIS BOOK AND I BOUGHT IT FROM AMAZON.COM I HAD IT DELIVERY NEXT DAY, I COULD NOT WAIT TO SEE THOSE PICS, LOL.

HI MIKE
I AM REALLY HAPPY THAT YOU JOINED THIS FORUM, YOUR EXPERTISE IN KNOB TAILS IS MOST WELCOME HERE AS WELL THE PICS OF YOUR BEAUTIES. WE CAN ALL SHARE OUR EXPERIENCES AND MAKE THE BEAUTIUFUL WORLD OF KNOB TAIL BIGGER AND BIGGER.
ALBERTO

 

[sbrech]

picture of n. sheai

Here is a foto of n. sheai.

But please note this:

This picture is not copyright of myself, it is from Friedrich Wilhelm Henkel. But also note that he is not keeping this species or any other australian geckos. the picture is taken from his webside, only to show here in this forum, how n. sheai does look like.

 

[A&M Gecko]

The PIC of that Sheai looks like the PIC of Asper in the book that I have. I took PICS of the ones on the book to show what I am talking about. Thinks are getting very confusing. On the book there are 2 PICS of 2 different looking Asper and one of them looks like that Sheai, Mike please help, lol.
Alberto
This one is marked as Asper.

 

[A&M Gecko]

This one is the wide banded Asper.

 

[A&M Gecko]

And this one is marked Sheai on the book and it looks like the "Aspers" that I posted in the first PIC and Stefan posted on the reply. Are, then, those really Sheais?
Alberto

 

[BGR.CC]

All three species of the asper complex can look very similar. A gecko from a red rock gorge will usually be orangish-red in color and one from a brown/black rock gorge will be browish-black in color. This is true for all three species: amyae, asper, and sheai.

The asper in the book looks like amyae because it comes from Dajarra which is in the far western portion of the range for asper. This region is in the "red center" of AU so the soil and rock is generally orangish-to-reddish in color. Go farther east to the Great Dividing Range where most of the rock outcrops are gray or brown in color and you will see gray or brown/black asper. You can see gray asper on a granite outcrop and one mile away see brownish/black asper on volcanic rocks. The environment will usually determine their coloration.

As far as the sheai photo posted by Stefan, the gecko appears to have digital banding so it looks like a sheai.

Let's not forget that without the research done on scalation and body measurements, all spiny knob-tailed geckos would still be considered Nephrurus asper. And without locality data, we could be looking at the three different species and think they all look nearly identical. On the other hand, we could be looking at three geckos that are easily distinguishable by color, spinosity, digital banding, etc...

Regards,
Michael

 

[Geckz]

I am curious, it says WIDE BANDED ASPER...I have a Amyae that looks JUST like that...is that just a weird thing or what?