Agama picticauda PETERS, 1877
Can you confirm these amateur observations of Agama picticauda?
Agama picticauda
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| Higher Taxa | Agamidae (Agaminae), Sauria, Iguania, Squamata (lizards) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | |
| Synonym | Agama picticauda PETERS 1877: 612 Agama picticauda — LEACHÉ et al. 2014 Agama picticauda — NUÑEZ et al. 2016 Agama picticauda — PAUWELS et al. 2017 |
| Distribution | Benin, 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), Madagascar (single specimen), Comoros (population) (P. Wagner, pers. comm., 4 April 2020) Introduced to USA (Florida, fide SSAR checklist) Type locality: “Ada Foah, Accra [Ghana] and Cameruns” |
| Reproduction | oviparous; 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). |
| Types | Syntypes: ZMB 54526 (was 6419 part), 403, 8299, 7209 |
| Diagnosis | |
| Comment | Synonymy: 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). |
| Etymology | Named after Latin pictus, painted; colored; decorated, and Latin cauda = tail, for the red and black colored tail in males. |
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