The Caucasian agama is a species of agamid

Agamidae

Agamids, lizards of the family Agamidae, include more than 300 species in Africa, Asia, Australia, and a few in Southern Europe. Many species are commonly called dragons or dragon lizards. Phylogenetically they may be sister to the Iguanidae, and have a similar appearance. Agamids usually have...

 lizard

Lizard

Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with nearly 3800 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica as well as most oceanic island chains...

 found in the Caucasus

Caucasus

The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...

, E/S Georgia

Georgia (country)

Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

, Armenia

Armenia

Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...

, Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...

, Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan , formerly also known as Turkmenia is one of the Turkic states in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic . Turkmenistan is one of the six independent Turkic states...

, Tajikistan

Tajikistan

Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east....

, Dagestan

Dagestan

The Republic of Dagestan is a federal subject of Russia, located in the North Caucasus region. Its capital and the largest city is Makhachkala, located at the center of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea...

 (Russia), E Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

, Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

, N Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

, Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

, NW Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

 and parts of Kashmir

Kashmir

Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...

.

Description

Head much depressed; nostril lateral, below the canthus rostralis, slightly tubular. Upper head-scales smooth; occipital not enlarged ; small conical spinose scales on the side of the head near the ear, and on the neck; ear larger than the eye-opening. Throat strongly plicate ; no gular pouch. Body much depressed, with a very indistinct lateral fold; nuchal and latero-dorsal scales very small, granular; vertebral region with enlarged flat, feebly keeled, rather irregular scales; flanks with enlarged, strongly keeled or spinose scales; no nuchal denticulation; ventral scales smooth, distinctly smaller than the enlarged dorsals. 150 to 160 scales round the middle of the body. Limbs strong, with compressed digits; the scales on the upper surface of limbs much enlarged, strongly keeled, generally spinose; fourth finger slightly longer than third; fourth toe a little longer than third, fifth extending beyond first. Tail rounded, depressed at the base, covered with rather large spinose scales arranged in rings, two rings forming a distinct segment; the length of the tail doos not equal quite twice the distance from gular fold to vent. Male with a large patch of callose preanal scales and an enormous patch of similar scales on the belly. Olivaceous above, with round yellowish black-edged spots, the black frequently forming a network; vertebral region yellowish, limbs with more or less distinct yellowish cross bars; lower surface yellowish in the female, blackish in the breeding male.

From snout to vent 5 inches.

External links

• http://itgmv1.fzk.de/www/itg/uetz/herp/photos/Laudakia_caucasia.jpg
• Laudakia caucasia atThe Checklist of Armenia's Amphibians and Reptiles at Tadevosyan's Herpetological Resources. Accessed 30 March 2007.