Hardwicke's bloodsucker

Hardwicke's bloodsucker
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Lacertilia
Family: Agamidae
Subfamily: Agaminae
Genus: Brachysaura
Species: B. minor
Binomial name
Brachysaura minor
(Hardwicke & Gray, 1827)
Synonyms

Agama minor Hardwicke & Gray 1827: 218
Brachysaura ornata Blyth 1856
Charasia ornata Boulenger 1885
Acanthosaura minor Boulenger 1890
Agama minor Smith 1935
Laudakia minor Das 1996
Agama minor Wermuth 1967

Hardwicke's bloodsucker (Brachysaura minor) is an agamid lizard and the only species of the genus Brachysaura 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.[1] 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.[2] Females are larger than the males.[3]

Color Pattern: Dorsal color is olive-brown with 3 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.[4] Color inside the mouth is ink-blue.[5] Females are more brilliantly colored during breeding season.[6]

Length: Maximum:18 cm,[7] Common:10 cm. (Snout to vent 6 cm.).[8]

Maximum published weight: ? g.

Distribution

Found in Bangladesh (south-east 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: Dwarf rock agama, Hardwicke's bloodsucker, Hardwicke's short-tail agama and Lesser agama.

Hindi & Indian other Languages: ?

Urdu & Sindhi: ?

Habitat

This lizard is Terrestrial & sometimes arboreal; inhabits in frequently fragmented dry forest, arid environments, barren desert and desolate areas across the Indo-Gangetic plains.[9]

Habit

This lizard is diurnal & crepuscular. It takes shelters in burrows close to the roots of thorny bushes.[10] Generally it is found sitting on stones, but it can climb up to shrubby vegetation. It is sluggish in movements, often not attempting to escape when approached.[11] It is a docile species.[12]

Diet

This lizard is mainly insectivorous; feeds on grasshoppers and their nymphs, earwigs, beetles, bugs, arthropods and spiders.[13] Sometimes it also eats flowers.[14]

Reproduction

This lizard is oviparous; breeding season extends from April to June; lays 4-6 hard shelled white eggs in burrows under the roots of vegetation.[15]

Importance & Uses

There is no known practical uses of this species but play rolls in Eco-system by eating various types of insects and otherwise.

Threat to humans

This lizard is non-venomous and completely harmless to humans.[16]

IUCN threat status

Data deficient (DD).[17]

Etymology

Brachysaura is a monotypic genus of agamid lizard, Agamidae. The Genus-name Brachysaura derived from two Greek words; one ‘βραχύς (brachýs)’, meaning ‘short’[18] and other ‘σαύρα (saura)’, meaning ‘lizard’, i.e., short or short tailed lizard[19] and the species-name minor, a Latin word, meaning ‘less’ or ‘smaller’, also referring to the smaller size of this agamid.[20]

Extra Notes

This lizard has a bad reputation for being particularly harmful, which is totally baseless and unfortunately contributed much to its depletion.[21]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.pakwildlife.org/wp-content/uploads/Artical-6.pdf
  2. ↑ http://snakes.mpsbb.info/33.html
  3. ↑ http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/170377/
  4. ↑ http://snakes.mpsbb.info/33.html
  5. ↑ http://www.landofthewild.com/showPic.php?&albumId=276&albumTitle=Reptiles&picId=1173&picTitle=Lesser%20Agama
  6. ↑ http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/170377/
  7. ↑ http://www.pakwildlife.org/wp-content/uploads/Artical-6.pdf
  8. ↑ http://www.pakwildlife.org/wp-content/uploads/Artical-6.pdf
  9. ↑ http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/170377/
  10. ↑ http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/170377/
  11. ↑ http://snakes.mpsbb.info/33.html
  12. ↑ http://faunaofindia.nic.in/PDFVolumes/hpg/007/index.pdf
  13. ↑ http://snakes.mpsbb.info/33.html
  14. ↑ http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/170377/
  15. ↑ http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/170377/
  16. ↑ http://faunaofindia.nic.in/PDFVolumes/sfs/007/index.pdf
  17. ↑ http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/170377/
  18. ↑ http://www.summagallicana.it/Agassiz_nomenclator_zoologicus/Reptilia.htm
  19. ↑ https://translate.google.com/#el/en/saura
  20. ↑ https://www.google.com/search?q=Etymology+of+minor+&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
  21. ↑ http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/170377/
  1. ↑ http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/170377/
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