The yellow-throated plated lizard or plated lizard (''Gerrhosaurus flavigularis'') is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of lizard, which is about 45½ cm (18 inches) in total length (including tail) and lives in the grassland and scrub of

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

and along Eastern Africa down to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

Description

A ground-living and burrowing lizard, this species is usually greenish-grey or brownish, with a yellow (or sometimes red) throat and often a narrow stripe down each side. It is well armored, with hard body plates, and head shields fused to the skull. The tail is generally about two-thirds of the total length. Its limbs are well-developed, though its four five-toed feet are not specially adapted for digging. These lizards mate during the summer. In mating season the males head change color to either red, yellow or even light blue. It was first described in 1828 by Weigmann, based on specimens at the Natural History Museum in Berlin that were collected in South Africa by Ludwig Krebs. Bauer AM (2004).
Early German Herpetological Observations and Explorations of Southern Africa, with special reference to the Zoological Museum of Berlin
. ''Bonn Zoological Bulletin'' 52 (3/4): 205.

Behaviour

The lizard does most of its tunneling after rain when the ground is soft. Active by day, it hunts insects and is rarely seen, despite its size. It moves rapidly through the "

grass Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family (biology), family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and spe ...

" and at any sign of danger darts into its burrow, usually positioned under a bush. The female plated lizard lays clutches of four or five eggs in a shallow pit which she excavates.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yellow-throated plated lizard Gerrhosaurus Reptiles described in 1828 Taxa named by Arend Friedrich August Wiegmann