Laudakia tuberculata

Laudakia tuberculata (Kashmir rock agama or tuberculated agama) is a species of agamid lizard found in northern Pakistan, northern India (W Himalaya, Kashmir, Punjab), Nepal, eastern Afghanistan, and western China (Tibetan Plateau).[1]

Laudakia tuberculata
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Iguania
Family: Agamidae
Genus: Laudakia
Species:
L. tuberculata
Binomial name
Laudakia tuberculata
(Gray, 1827)
Synonyms

Stellio indicus
Agama tuberculata
Barycephalus sykesii

Description

"Head much depressed; snout longer than the diameter of the orbit; nostril lateral, below the canthus rostralis, slightly tubular. Upper head-scales smooth or feebly keeled: occipital not enlarged; small closely set spinose scales on the sides of the head near the ear, and on the neck; ear entirely exposed, larger than the eye-opening. Throat strongly plicate; no gular pouch. Body depressed, with a more or less distinct fold on each side of the back; scales on the neck and sides minute, almost granular, keeled, uniform or intermixed with scattered enlarged scales; those on the vertebral region enlarged, equal, rhomboidal, imbricate, strongly keeled; a very slight indication of a nuchal denticulation; ventral scales smooth, nearly as large as the enlarged dorsals. Limbs strong, with compressed digits; the scales on the upper surface of the limbs much enlarged and very strongly keeled; third and fourth fingers equal, or fourth very slightly longer; fourth toe slightly longer than third, fifth extending beyond first. Tail rounded, much depressed at the base, covered with moderate-sized strongly keeled scales arranged in rings; its length equals 2.5 to 3 times the distance from gular fold to vent.

Males with a large patch of thickened preanal scales and a patch of similar scales on the middle of the belly. Olive-brown above, spotted or speckled with blackish, sometimes with small yellowish spots; the breeding male's throat blue, with light spots; sometimes a light vertebral band."[2]

Cited references

  1. Laudakia tuberculata at the Reptarium.cz Reptile Database. Accessed 24 December 2017.
  2. Boulenger, G. A. (1890). Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Reptilia and Batrachia. London: Taylor and Francis. 570 pp.

References

  • Ananjeva, N.B. & Tuniev 1994 Some aspects of historical biogeography of Asian rock agamids Russ. J. Herpetol. 1 (1): 43
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