Order: Squamata
Family: Agamidae
Size: up to 21 cm in length.
Key Features: body brown in colour with a series of dark spots along the middle of the back, the spot on the neck being the darkest; a whitish band along each side of the back. Gular appendage tricoloured—blue, black, and red. Tail round, slender, once and a half to twice as long as the head and body, covered with equal keeled scales.
Breeding: lizard is oviparous, polyautochronic, multi-clutched and breed from May to August. Egg-laying commence in July and individuals may lay up to October. The eggs are laid in a hole dug by female and clutch size has been observed to be 9-16.
Diet: Insects are preferred during the rainy and winter seasons. During the summer dry season, plant material was the dominant food type. Gastropod intake increased during the dry months, when availability of insect prey is low.
Habitat: species inhabits moderately moist scrub, rocky and sandy coastal areas, and open areas in dry forests and dry scrublands.
Habits: When disturbed this lizard sometimes runs with a bipedal gait.
Conservation Status: Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
References:
Smith, M. A. (1941). Fauna of British India. Reptilia and Amphibia
C. A. L. Gunther's (1864) The Reptiles of British India.
Boulenger, G.A.(1890). Reptilia and Batrachia. In W.T. Blanford (Ed.), The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Berlin:
https://archive.org/stream/reptiliabatrachi00bouliala#page/n1/mode/2up
IUCN Red List. http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/176220/0
Pal. A, Swain M.M. & Rath S. (2007) Seasonal variation in the diet of the Fan-throated Lizard, Sitana ponticeriana (Sauria: Agamidae). Herpetological Conservation and Biology 2(2): 145-148. (http://www.herpconbio.org/Volume_2/Issue_2/Pal_etal_2007.pdf)
Trivedi J.N., Bayani A.S, Pratyush P. & Suresh B. (2013). Study of Egg laying behaviour of Fan-throated Lizard, Sitana Ponticeriana (Cuvier, 1829) from Shrubland of Vadodara City, Gujarat, India. International Research Journal of Biological Sciences. Vol 2(5), 74-77. (http://www.isca.in/IJBS/Archive/v2/i5/12.ISCA-IRJBS-2013-054.pdf)
Photo Courtesy
J.M.Garg, Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Fan-throated Lizard (Sitana ponticeriana)
