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Agama picticauda PETERS, 1877

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Higher TaxaAgamidae (Agaminae), Sauria, Iguania, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies 
Common Names 
SynonymAgama picticauda PETERS 1877: 612
Agama picticauda — LEACHÉ et al. 2014
Agama picticauda — NUÑEZ et al. 2016
Agama picticauda — PAUWELS et al. 2017 
DistributionBenin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Guinea (Conakry), Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Ivory Coast.

Introduced to Cape Verde Islands, Florida (surviving populations), Madeira (single specimens), La Réunion (populations), Madagaskar (single specimen), Komoren (population) (P. Wagner, pers. comm., 4 April 2020)

Introduced to USA (Florida, fide SSAR checklist)

Type locality: “Ada Foah, Accra [Ghana] and Cameruns”  
Reproductionoviparous; this species was the first lizard in which Temperature‐dependent sex determination (TSD) was discovered, over 50 years ago. Females are produced at relatively cool temperatures and males at warmer temperatures (30°C) (Steele et al. 2018). 
TypesSyntypes: ZMB 54526 (was 6419 part), 403, 8299, 7209 
Diagnosis 
CommentSynonymy: A. picticauda used to be considered as a synonym of A. agama but some recent authors consider it as valid after Wagner et al. resurrected it. However, it’s validity remains contentious and more recent authors do not recognize it (e.g. Pauwels et al. 1016, 2018 in Miscellanea Herpetologica Gabonica V, VI, XIV and JF Trape, pers. comm., 30 Jan 2024).

Distribution: All reports of A. agama from Gabon represent actually A. lebretoni (Pauwels et al. 2016) or A. picticauda (Leaché et al. 2016, Pauwels et al. 2017). 
References
  • Dzikowski, N T; Blais, C B; Henigan, L E; Romagosa, C M & Claunch, N M 2019. Agama picticauda (Peters’s Rock Agama) Reproduction. Herpetological Review 50 (1): 132 - get paper here
  • Henigan, L E; Blais, C B; Dzikowski, N T; Romagosa, C M & Claunch, N M 2019. Agama picticauda (Peters’s Rock Agama) Cannibalism. Herpetological Review 50 (1): 132-133 - get paper here
  • Leaché, A. et al. 2014. A hybrid phylogenetic–phylogenomic approach for species tree estimation in African Agama lizards with applications to biogeography, character evolution, and diversification. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 79: 215-230, DOI: 10.1016/j.ympev.2014.06.013 - get paper here
  • Moore, J A; 2019. Agama picticauda (Peter’s Rock Agama) Dispersal. Herpetological Review 50 (2): 360 - get paper here
  • Nuñez, Leroy P.; Kenneth L. Krysko, and Michael L. Avery 2016. CONFIRMATION OF INTRODUCED AGAMA PICTICAUDA IN FLORIDA BASED ON MOLECULAR ANALYSES. Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History 54(9):138–146. - get paper here
  • Ofori, Benjamin Yeboah; Princess Martey, Daniel Korley Attuquayefio 2018. Observations of the African rainbow lizard (Agama picticauda Peters 1877) from Ghana feeding on bread. Herpetology Notes 11: 955-957 - get paper here
  • Pauwels, O. S. G., T. Biyogho Bi Essono II, P. Carlino, L. Chirio, B. Huijbregts, T. E. J. Leuteritz, D. Rousseaux, E. Tobi, C. Vigna and W. Van Neer 2017. Miscellanea Herpetologica Gabonica VII. Bull. Chicago Herp. Soc. 52: 1 - get paper here
  • Peters, Wilhem Carl Hartwig 1877. Übersicht der Amphibien aus Chinchoxo (Westafrika), welche von der Africanischen Gesellschaft dem Berliner zoologischen Museum übergeben sind. Monatsber. königl. Akad. Wiss. Berlin. 1877 (October): 611-620 - get paper here
  • Spawls, Stephen; Tomáš Mazuch & Abubakr Mohammad 2023. Handbook of Amphibians and Reptiles of North-east Africa. Bloomsbury, 640 pp. - get paper here
 
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