Order: Squamata

Family: Agamidae

 

Size:  Male- 40-49 cm in length; Female- 34-40 cm in length.

 

Key Features: It has a rounded head with a flat snout. It is usually yellowish brown, sandy or olive in colour. It may have black spots and vermiculations and a distinctive black spot on the front of the thigh. It has a dorso-ventrally flattened body with wrinkled skin. It has distinctive tail whorls of spiny scales with large spines on the side which give the lizard its name. The tail is bluish-grey (in Jaisalmer) to sand-coloured (in Kachchh). The colour of the lizards varies and darker colours are seen during the colder seasons.

 

Breeding: breed in spring after emerging from hibernation. It lays white pigeon-sized eggs.

 

Diet: lizard is largely herbivorous and its teeth are adapted for a plant diet which comprises the flowers and fruits of the kair (Capparis aphylla); the beans of khejri (Prosopis spicigera); the fruit of Salvadora persica, and grass. In locust-breeding areas the spiny tailed lizard has been known to feed on nymphs and adults of the locust. In summer they tend to forage more in the mornings feeding to a greater extent on insects and in the monsoons they fed principally on herbs and grasses.

 

Habitat:  found in firm ground rather than pure sand dune and elevated patches of land especially in Kachchh where it is invariably found on isolated patches of high ground.

 

Habits: Generally found in firm ground rather than pure sand dunes, Hardwicke's spiny-tailed lizard is often found living in colonies, sometimes on the outskirts of villages. It prefers elevated patches of land especially in Kachchh where it is invariably found on isolated patches of high ground (called Bets) above the monsoon water level.

 

Conservation Status: Not listed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

 

 

 

 

 

References:

Chandra K & PU Gajbe (March 2005). "An inventory of herpetofauna of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh". Zoos' Print Journal 20 (3): 1812–1819.

 

Dutta, S & Jhala Y (2007). "Ecological aspects of Indian spiny-tailed lizardUromastyx hardwickii in Kutch". J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 104 (3): 255–265.

 

Mason, C. W. (1911). The Food of birds in India. Thacker, Spink & Co.

 

Photo Courtesy

Nature Loader,Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons