Female, Oriental Garden Lizard, Calotes versicolor

Calotes is a lizard genus in the draconine clade of the family Agamidae. Some species are known as forest lizards, others as "bloodsuckers" due to their red heads, and yet others as (namely C. versicolor) as garden lizards. They are geographically restricted to South Asia, Myanmar and regions of Southeast Asia. The greatest diversity of the genus is from the Western Ghats and Northeast (India), Myanmar, and Sri Lanka.

Calotes is distinguished from related genera in having uniform size dorsal scales, and lacking a fold of skin extending between the cheek and shoulder, and in having proportionately stronger limbs than Pseudocalotes. Compared to Bronchocela, Calotes have a proportionately shorter tail and limbs. Calotes as we know it today was classified by Moody (1980) prior to which all of the above mentioned genera were included in this genus.

Female Calotes at Pune, India

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The genus is still a heterogeneous group that may be divided into the C. versicolor and C. liocephalus groups. The former occurs through most of South Asia and further east. All species in this group have their dorsal and lateral scales directed upward. The latter is restricted to the southern Western Ghats and Sri Lanka. All species in this group have their scales directed back, or up and down, or down only. Whether further splitting is necessary or whether the groups constitute subgenera of a monophyletic Calotes remains to be studied.

Species^[1]

• Calotes andamanensis – Andaman and Nicobar Forest Lizard, Green Crestless Forest Lizard
• Calotes aurantolabium – Orange-lipped Forest lizard
• Calotes bhutanensis Biswas, 1975
• Calotes calotes – Common Green Forest Lizard
• Calotes ceylonensis (Müller, 1887) – Painted-lip Lizard, Ceylon Bloodsucker
• Calotes chincollium Vindum, 2003
• Calotes desilvai Bahir & Maduwage, 2005
• Calotes ellioti – Elliot's Forest Lizard
• Calotes emma – Emma Gray's Forest Lizard, Forest Crested Lizard
• Calotes grandisquamis – Large-scaled Forest Lizard
• Calotes htunwini Zug & Vindum, 2006
• Calotes irawadi Zug, Brown, Schulte & Vindum, 2006
• Calotes jerdoni – Jerdon's Forest Lizard
• Calotes kingdonwardi (Smith, 1935) – Kingdonward's Bloodsucker
• Calotes liocephalus – Spineless Forest Lizard, Crestless Lizard, Lionhead Agama
• Calotes liolepis (Boulenger, 1885) – Whistling Lizard, Sri LAgama
• Calotes maria – Khasi Hills Forest Lizard
• Calotes medogensis (Zhao & Li, 1984) – Medog Bloodsucker
• Calotes mystaceus (Duméril & Bibron, 1837) – Indo-Chinese Forest Lizard, Blue-crested Lizard
• Calotes nemoricola – Nilgiri Forest Lizard
• Calotes nigrilabris (Peters, 1860) – Black-cheek Lizard
• Calotes nigriplicatus Hallermann, 2000
• Calotes rouxii – Roux's Forest Lizard, Roux's Forest Calotes
• Calotes versicolor – Oriental Garden Lizard, Changeable Lizard, Eastern Garden Lizard
  • Calotes versicolor nigrigularis Auffenberg & Rehmann, 1993 – Black-throated Bloodsucker

References

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Wikispecies has information related to: Calotes

Emma Gray's Forest Lizard (Calotes emma), also known as the Forest Crested Lizard, is an agamid lizard found in South China (Guangdong, Yunnan), India (Assam), Burma (= Myanmar), Thailand (including Phuket), Laos, Vietnam (including Pulo Condore Islands), Malaysia (Malaysian peninsula) and Cambodia.

Description

From C. A. L. Gunther (1864) The Reptiles of British India.

Three small groups of spines, completely separate from each other, on each side of the head—one behind the superciliary margin and two above each tympanum. Dorsal crest well developed on the neck and on the anterior part of the trunk, gradually disappearing behind. A transverse fold in front of each shoulder; gular sac but little developed. Tail compressed. About fifty-one series of scales round the middle of the trunk. Brownish olive, with brown bands across the back, which arc lighter in the middle and interrupted by a white band running along each side of the back; eyelids with short, radiating brown streaks; a brown band from behind the eye to above the tympanum; fold before the shoulder black, with an irregular white margin; legs and tail with indistinct dark cross bands. An inhabitant of Mergui, whence we have received it from Professor Oldham, ranging northwards perhaps to the Khasya Hills; extremely doubtful as an inhabitant of Afghanistan. It attains to a length of 11 inches, the tail measuring 8 inches. Mr. Blyth mentions it amongst a collection made by Captain Bedmore at Schwe Gyen on the Sitang River in Pegu.

References

• Boulenger, G.A. 1885 Catalogue of the Lizards in the British Museum (Nat. Hist.) I. Geckonidae, Eublepharidae, Uroplatidae, Pygopodidae, Agamidae. London: 450 pp.
• Gray, J. E. 1845 Catalogue of the specimens of lizards in the collection of the British Museum. Trustees of die British Museum/Edward Newman, London: xxvii + 289 pp.