Agama Agama Common Agama, Rainbow

Lizard
Classification

 Kingdom Animalia
 Phylum Chordata
 Subphylum Vertebrata
 Class Reptilia
 Order Squamata
 Family Agamidae
 Species Agama agama (Common Agama, Rainbow Lizard)

Habitat
Rainbow lizards can occupy urban, suburban and wild areas that supply enough vegeta-
tion for reproduction and insects for food.

 Terrestrial Biomes
 desert or dune
 savanna or grassland
 forest
 rainforest
 scrub forest
 mountains
Physical Description
The agama lizard is characterized by its whitish underside, buff brown back limbs and
tail with a slightly lighter stripe down the middle and six to seven dark patches to the
side of this stripe. There is some sexual dimorphism. The subordinate males, females,
and adolescents possess an olive green head. A blue body and yellow tail and head
characterize the dominant male. A. agama has a large head separated from the body, a
long tail, well-developed external ear openings and eyelids. This lizard also has
acrodont, heterodont teeth. The lizard possesses both caniniform incisors for grasping
and molariform cheekteeth for crushing. The maximum size for male lizards is twenty-
five centimeters and female lizards is twenty centimeters (Harris 1964).
Reproduction
Females reach sexual maturity at age fourteen to eighteen months, males at two
years. A. agama reproduces during the wet season although they are capable of repro-
ducing nearly year round in areas of consistent rainfall (Porter et al. 1983). The male
will approach the female from behind and head bob to her. If she accepts then she will
arch her back with her tail and head raised. The male walks to her side and grasps her
neck and puts his leg on the female's back, the pair swivel 90 degrees in order to bring
their cloacas together and thrusts his tail onto her cloaca inserting his right or left
hemipenes (depending on side location). This mating ritual usually lasts one to two
minutes when the female will scurry away and the male also after several minutes
(Harris 1964).

The female lays her eggs in a hole she digs with her snout and claws. The hole is five
centimeters deep and is found in sandy, wet, damp soil that is exposed to sunlight
nearly all day and covered by herbage or grasses. The eggs are usually laid in clutches
ranging from five to seven ellipsoidal eggs. A. agama is a thermo regulated embryo
species resulting in all males at twenty-nine degrees Celsius and all females at twenty-
six to twenty-seven degrees Celsius (Crews et al. 1983). The eggs will hatch within
eight to ten weeks. Hatchlings will be between 3.7 and 3.8 centimeters snout vent and
their 7.5-centimeter tail. They will almost immediately start eating rocks, sand, plants,
and insects. The adolescent will remain solitary for the first two months and by four
months live in a gregarious group with a dominant male (cock), several females and
some subordinate adolescent males (sub-males). The dominant male has mating dis-
tinction within his territory. If a sub-male or intruder tries to mate with his females then
there is a challenge or fight. To gain territory males must establish a new territory with
no cocks or dispose of the current cock (Harris 1964).

Behavior
The agama is mostly a docile lizard except for a cock who defends his territory. There
are several identifiable behaviors in this species (head nod, head bob, challenge dis-
play, threat display, fighting, and basking). The head nod is when A. agama repeatedly
raises and lowers his head, usually seen at the end of movements, possibly to show
cock position of individuals. Head bobbing, also known as push-ups, is the raising and
lowering of the head and chest. This is done in an alert posture, it also occurs in the re-
productive behavior of the cock. Shown to females when in reproductive colors, one to
two begins courtship. The challenge display is shown by the cock to intruding males or
sub-males showing reproductive color. This is only seen in territory situations. The
threat display is the rapid up and down movement of the head with the gular sac fully
extended. The whole body raises and lowers.

During fighting males display different colors, usually a dark brown head and a pale
blue-grey gular pouch is displayed to show intention (Harris 1964). Fighting is a series
of bluffs, threats and combat. The challenge occurs when a sub-male or intruding male
of reproduction color comes into a territory. The resident cock will challenge from a dis-
play post showing the gular pouch while head bobbing. The intruder will react by re-
treating or staying and displaying. If the intruder stays then the cock will charge to
within two feet and will change colors and threaten again, he will then rush within six
inches and will side hop with mouth open. The males will then reverse directions and
strike each other with their tails.
Basking occurs mainly in the morning between ten and noon, when A. agama has a
darker dorsal coloration than later in the day. The cock will have the best most elevated
site with the sub-males having the next best followed by the females (Harris 1964).

Food Habits
Agama agama are primarily insectivores, however A. agama have been known to eat
small mammals, small reptiles, and vegetation such as flowers, grasses, and fruits.
Their diet consists of mainly ants, grasshoppers, beetles, and termites (Harris 1964). A.
agama is a sit and wait predator (Crews et al., 1983). Hunting by vision, it sits in vege-
tation, under a rock outcropping, or in the shade and waits until an insect or small
mammal walks by and then will chase the prey. They catch their prey by using a tongue
with a tip covered by mucous glands; this aids the lizard in holding onto small prey
such as ants and termites.