Calotes calotes
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This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (July 2007) |
| Common Green Forest Lizard | ||||||||||||||||
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| Calotes calotes Lönnberg, 1896 |
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Lacerta Calotes Linnaeus 1758 |
The Calotes calotes is an agamid lizard found in the forests of the Western Ghats, the Shevaroy Hills and Sri Lanka.
[edit] Description
Length of head one and a half times its breadth ; snout a little longer than the orbit ; forehead concave ; cheeks swollen ; upper head-scales unequal, smooth ; canthus rostralis and supraciliary edge sharp ; a row of 8 or 9 compressed spines, divided into two groups, above the tympanum, the diameter of which is less than half that of the orbit; 9 to 11 upper and as many lower labials. Body compressed ; dorsal scales large, feebly keeled, sometimes smooth, pointing backwards and upwards, as large as or a little smaller than the ventrals, which are strongly keeled and mucronate ; 30 to 35 scales round the middle of the body. Gular pouch not developed ; gular scales feebly keeled, nearly or quite as large as the ventrals. A short oblique fold in front of the shoulder covered with small granular scales. Nuchal and dorsal crests continuous, composed of closely-set lanceolate spines with smaller ones at the base ; in the adult male the height of the crest on the neck equals or exceeds the diameter of the orbit; on the back it gradually diminishes in size. Limbs moderate ; third and fourth fingers nearly equal ; fourth toe distinctly longer than third toe ; the hind-limb reaches to the front of the eye or beyond. Tail very long and slender.
Bright green dorsally, usually with 5 or 6 whitish or dark, green transverse stripes, often continued on to the tail ; head yellowish- or brownish-green ; throat (in life) red ; belly pale green ; tail light brown. Young and immature sometimes with a whitish dorso-lnterr.1 stripe. A half-grown example in the British Museum, no. 74.4.29.836, has a broad vertebral stripe of buff with elongated dark brown spots.[1]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Smith, M A (1941) Fauna of British India. Reptilia and Amphibia.
[edit] References
- Erdelen, W. 1984 The genus Calotes (Sauria: Agamidae) in Sri Lanka: distribution patterns. J. Biogeogr. 11: 515-525
- Lönnberg, E. 1896 Linnean type-specimens of birds, reptiles, batrachians, and fishes in the Zoological Museum of the Royal University of Upsala. Bihang till Kongliga Svenska Vetenskaps-Akademiens. Handlingar, Stockholm 22 (4) l: 1-45
