Dear Jeroen,
I apologize for my late reply.
I wasn't online for a few days and so I read your question just now.
It's very difficult to describe the differences between the subspecies of modesta.
Travelling in southern Madagascar it's no problem to distinguish the populations from each other. The Tulear population differs from the Ambovombe population, Ambovombe differs from Taolagnaro and Taolagnaro differs from Isaka and so on.
One can say: travelling from West to East (or: from dry to humid climate)
the animals become more colourful by increasing humidity. My additional impression was, that the southwestern populations tend to have longitudinal red stripes, while the southeastern animals seem to have more or less red dots.
The exact problem is: In every population every single specimen differs
from each other superficially. You will almost never find two
![männlich male](./images/smilies/icon_male.gif)
specimens
on a garden fence that have the the same colouration. The only exception is modesta isakae. All the males I've seen at Isaka had the same bright blue head mask and the same blue tail.
The next problem is: The offspring of all modesta ssp. held in captivity
become dull coloured!
Another problem: All modesta ssp. will crossbreed in captivity, I think!
No one can say, that there is no intergradation in captivity, intentional
or unintentional ...
Looking at the pictures you provided I would say, you have no isakae!
You should keep them as modesta ssp.
If you want more information about modesta, you should contact our IG member Jens Krüger, who is the specialist in lineata and modesta.
Hope I could help a little
Gerd