Karoo girdled lizard
|
|
|
|
|
Endemic, SVL 90 - 105 mm, max SVL 113 mm
A large graceful girdled lizard with a flattened body. The supranasals are in contact, separating the rostral and the frontonasal. The nasals are small and slightly tubular. The lower eyelids have transparent discs.There are two occipitals. The dorsal scales are small, smooth on the back and keeled on the flanks,in 38-46 transverse rows. There is a pair of enlarged preanal plates. and 10-19 femoral pores on each thigh. There are two rows of large, spiny scales in each tail whorl. Coloration is regionally varied. In juveniles, the back is yellow-brown, chequered with dark brown and pale cream, and the tail is banded dark brown. In adults, the body may retain the juvenile coloration(in speciemens from S.Karoo), or become dark brown or black(central Cape, coastal Namaqualand and S.Namibia), uniform olive(S Free State), olive-brown with vivid orange-red flanks (N.Cape), or even blue-green(Tygerberg, SW Cape). All population have a characteristic black blotch on the side of the neck, and some individuals retain irregular black spots on the back. Biology and breeding : One of the most common lizards in the central karroid regions of the Cape. Found in diffuse colonies, living in sun-split rocks of small rock outcrops and lower mountaion slopes. During the heat of the day it perches on a boulder, basking and making short forays to grab beetles or grasshoppers. During winter it may hibernate in a deep tunnel which it digs in soil beneath a large boulder. Very alert, at the first sign of danger it retreats into a rock cracks and curls its tail over its head. Two (exceptionally 3-4) large bebies (100-110mm TL) are born in late summer(February-March) Habitat : Varied:Karroid regions, coastal renosterveld and succulent Karoo. Range : Central and W.Cape; into S. Free State and S.Namibia.