Calotes minor (Hardwicke & Gray 1827)

Hardwicke's bloodsucker (Calotes minor) is an agamid lizard and found in South Asia.

Morphology

Physical structure: This is a small stocky and pot-belly lizard with a short tail. Its head large and elongated, flat above, sloping towards snout.^[2] Its dorsal scales larger, strongly imbricate and keeled, pointing backward and upward, ventral scales smaller than dorsal; upper head scales larger, unequal, strongly keeled or tubercular.^[3] Females are larger than the males.^[1]

Color pattern: Dorsal color is olive-brown with three rows of dark-brown light edged spots on the back and base of the tail; spots of middle row are most prominent and rhomboidal; a white streak on each side of the neck is bifurcating behind and an oblique one from the eye to the angle of mouth; limbs are with dark-brown cross bars; throat is profusely spotted with dark-brown and orange; belly is yellowish-white with numerous orange dots.^[3] Color inside the mouth is ink-blue.^[4] Females are more brilliantly colored during breeding season.^[1]

Length: Maximum:18 cm,^[2] Common:10 cm. (Snout to vent 6 cm.)^[2]

Distribution

Found in Bangladesh (southeast part of the country), India (Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Odissa) and Pakistan (Sindh).

Vernacular names

Bengali: আগামা গিরিগিটি, পাতি রক্তচোষা, পাতিয়াল গিরিগিটি (Patial girigiti), হার্ডউইকের গিরিগিটি।

English: Hardwicke's bloodsucker, Hardwicke's short-tail agama, dwarf rock agama, and lesser agama.

Hindi & other Indian languages: ?

Urdu & Sindhi: ?

Habitat

This lizard is terrestrial and sometimes arboreal; inhabits frequently fragmented dry forest, arid environments, barren desert and desolate areas across the Indo-Gangetic plains.^[1]

Habit

This lizard is diurnal and crepuscular. It shelters in burrows close to the roots of thorny bushes.^[1] Generally it is found sitting on stones, but it can climb up shrubby vegetation. It is sluggish in movements, often not attempting to escape when approached.^[3] It is a docile species.^[5]

Diet

This lizard is mainly insectivorous; feeding on grasshoppers and their nymphs, earwigs, beetles, bugs, arthropods and spiders.^[3] Sometimes it also eats flowers.^[1]

Reproduction

This lizard is oviparous; the breeding season extends from April to June; it lays four to six hard shelled white eggs in burrows under the roots of vegetation.^[1]

Importance and uses

There are no known practical uses of this species, but it plays a role in the eco-system by eating various types of insects and otherwise.

Threat to humans

This lizard is non-venomous and completely harmless to humans.^[6]

Etymology

The species-name minor, a Latin word, meaning 'less' or 'smaller', also referring to the smaller size of this agamid.^[7]

Extra notes

This lizard has a reputation for being particularly harmful, which is totally baseless and has contributed much to its depletion.^[1]

References