Hottentotta hottentotta ssp

Hi,
Just want to show the differences of colour and size between these two subspecies :
- Hottentotta hottentotta hottentotta, adult female, Burkina-Faso
- Hottentotta hottentotta nigrocarinatus, adult female, Cape Verde Islands
Both photos was taken with the same magnification !
Cheers,
Eric

The nigrocarinatus looks different enough to be raised to species level, colours not a good separator buts its definitely bigger, is size a good taxonomic character?

wow, they looks like realy two different species Eric
This is my Hottentotta hottentotta, I tought they are from Mali but I'm not sure..

fusion121 said:

The nigrocarinatus looks different enough to be raised to species level, colours not a good separator buts its definitely bigger, is size a good taxonomic character?

Click to expand...

I don't know... I think the specimen from Cape Verde is H.h.nigrocarinatus (described by Vachon in Senegal, not far from Cape Verde) but actually I'm not sure... I have to find the paper of Vachon, but as you said both "ssp" are very different in size and colour.
I saw a paper of G.schmidt, who described H.h.hottentotta in Cape Verde.
Perhaps also a morph...
I just asked to Lourenço, which know well the work of Vachon and have probably the nigrocarinatus' description, and I'm waiting his reply...
Cheers,
Eric

ythier, in your first photo over the both, he looks like a C.Gracilis, it,s curious.
www.zonalibre.org/blog/CirculosConcentricos

i didn't think it looked anything like a C.g.