Description: Relatively large agamid lizard. Mostly greenish in color. Some have either 4-6 white-colored bands or 2 dorsal longitudinal white lines. Adults have a red line across the eyes. Juveniles don’t have white bands or red lines across the eyes. Ventral scales are keeled. There is a single continuous row of 8-9 compressed spines above the tympanum.
Breeding males have a red or dark redhead and a gular sack. Diurnal and arboreal. Found in disturbed forests, plantations, human habitats, and grasslands. Oviparous, laying 6-12 spherical, soft-shelled eggs in a pit.
C. Calotes is an impressively enormous type of agamid, estimating 50 to 65 cm (19.5 to 25.5 in) long, including the tail.
The length of the head is one and a half times the size of its broadness, the nose is somewhat longer than the circle. The reptile has an inward brow, swollen cheeks, and smooth, inconsistent upper head-scales. The canthus rostralis and the supraciliary edge both are sharp. A column of 8 or 9 packed spines, isolated into two gatherings, is over the tympanum, the distance across of these is not exactly a large portion of that of the circle. C. calotes has 9 to 11 upper and the same number of lower labials. The body is compacted, the dorsal scales are huge and generally weakly keeled, yet once in a while smooth. These scales point in reverse and upwards and are as extensive as or a somewhat littler than the ventrals, which are unequivocally keeled and mucronate. 30 to 35 scales spread the center of the body. The gular pocket isn’t created, the gular scales are weakly keeled, they are about as extensive as the ventrals. A short slanted crease is before the shoulder and is secured with little granular scales. The nuchal and dorsal peaks are nonstop, made out of firmly set lanceolate spines with little ones at the base. In grown-up guys the stature of the peak on the neck approaches or surpasses the measurement of the circle, on the back it steps by step decreases in size. The Limbs are moderate, the third and fourth fingers are about equivalent, anyway, the fourth toe is unmistakably longer than the third toe. The rear appendage scopes to the front of the eye or further. C. calotes has an exceptionally long and thin tail. The reptile has a splendid green dorsal tinge, as a rule with 5 or 6 white, cream or dull green transverse stripes; anyway, these are variable. Regularly the stripes proceed to the tail. The head is yellowish-or caramel green while the male builds up a brilliant red head and throat in the reproducing season. The underside is light green, the tail is light earthy colored. Youthful and juvenile now and again have a whitish dorsal-horizontal stripe.
DISTRIBUTION: Throughout Sri Lanka(but common in lowland and mid-country wet zone), India.
Diet: Insects.
| Scientific classification |
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|---|---|
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Suborder: | Iguania |
| Family: | Agamidae |
| Genus: | Calotes |
| Species: |
C. calotes
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| Binomial name | |
| Calotes calotes
(Linnaeus, 1758) [1]
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| Synonyms | |
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Calotes calotes Green Garden Lizard 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
- Mohomed M. Bahir & Kalana P. Maduwage (2005). “Calotes desilvai, a new species of agamid lizard from Morningside Forest, Sri Lanka” (PDF). Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. Suppl. 12: 381–392.
- ^ The Reptile database
- ^ Chandrasekara, Chamith (11 February 2012). “Green Forest Lizard (Calotes calotes)”. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
- ^ Smith, M A (1941) Fauna of British India. Reptilia and Amphibia.
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