Thorny Devil
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| Moloch horridus Gray, 1841 |
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The Thorny Devil (Moloch horridus) is also known as the Thorny Dragon, Thorny Lizard, or the Moloch. It is the sole species of genus Moloch.
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[edit] Appearance
The thorny devil grows up to ca. 20 cm in length, which is approximately 8 inches, coloured in camouflaging shades of desert browns and tans (colours changing from pale when warm, to darker colours when cold), and is entirely covered with conical spines (mostly uncalcified). It also features a spiny "false-head" on the back of the neck, which predators might eat instead of the real head of the thorny devil. Females are larger than males.
[edit] Habitat
It inhabits arid scrub and desert over most of central Australia. In particular, it inhabits spinifex-sandplain and sandridge desert within the interior and mallee belt. Its distribution largely coincides more with the distribution of sandy and sandy loam soils than with a particular climate (Pianka and Pianka 1970).
[edit] Diet
The food that the devil mainly eats is ants, often Iridomyrmex. They can eat over 1,000 ants in one sitting.[citation needed] They collect moisture in the dry desert via night-time condensation of dew which forms on the skin and is channelled to the mouth in hygroscopic grooves between its spines (Bentley and Blumer 1962), and also during rain events.
A clutch of three to ten eggs is laid in September-December (spring-summer) in a nesting burrow about 30 cm underground, and hatches after an incubation of three to four months (Pianka 1997).
Predators include bustards and goannas.
The thorny devil is only distantly related to the morphologically similar North American horned lizards of the genus Phrynosoma, and is more an example of convergent evolution.
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[edit] References
- Bentley, P. J. and F. C. Blumer. 1962. Uptake of water by the lizard, Moloch horridus. Nature 194: 699-700.
- Pianka, E. R. 1997. Australia's thorny devil. Reptiles 5 (11): 14-23.
- Pianka, E. R. and H. D. Pianka. 1970. The ecology of Moloch horridus (Lacertilia: Agamidae) in Western Australia. Copeia 1970: 90-103.
