The spineless forest lizard, crestless lizard or lionhead agama (''Calotes liocephalus'') is a species of

lizard Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia al ...

in the family

Agamidae Agamidae is a family of over 300 species of iguanian lizards indigenous to Africa, Asia, Australia, and a few in Southern Europe. Many species are commonly called dragons or dragon lizards. Overview Phylogenetically, they may be sister to the ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found els ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

Description

''Calotes liocephalus'' grows to in snout–vent length and in total length. Spineless forest lizard is one of four ''

Calotes ''Calotes'' is a genus of lizards in the draconine clade of the family Agamidae. The genus contains 29 species. Some species are known as forest lizards, others as "bloodsuckers" due to their red heads, and yet others (namely '' C. versicolor ...

'' species endemic to Sri Lanka, which all share a common set of characteristics. These include a relatively short head, with swollen cheeks, backwards, or backwards and downwards pointing scales on the side of the body, a tail that is strongly swollen at the base in fully grown adult males. This lizard is patterned with a mixture of pale moss-green, dark green and brown indistinct stripes on its body, extending from the back down the sides to the belly, and pale moss-green and dark brown to black rings around its limbs and tail. This cryptic colouration helps camouflage the small lizard from potential predators in the treetops of its habitat. The spineless forest lizard closely resembles the green garden lizard (''

Calotes calotes ''Calotes calotes'', the common green forest lizard, is an agamid lizard found in the forests of the Western Ghats and the Shevaroy Hills in India, and Sri Lanka. Description ''Calotes calotes'' is a considerably large species of agamid, measur ...

'') but can be distinguished by the absence of spines above the ear found in other ''Calotes'' species, a feature that has earned the lizard its common name.

Ecology

Highly arboreal, very rarely comes to the ground, this species is known to be diurnal. Oviparous, and known to lay 5-6 eggs per time.

Diet

Feed on insects and other small animals, although a few also feed on plant matter as adults.

References

Calotes Reptiles of Sri Lanka Endemic fauna of Sri Lanka Reptiles described in 1872 Taxa named by Albert Günther Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{agamidae-stub