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Phrynocephalus persicus
The Persian Toad-headed Agama (''Phrynocephalus persicus'' De Filippi, 1863) is a small diurnal desert lizard of Agamids family. This small predator forages on various small arthropods as ants, spiders, grasshoppers, beetles, bees and flyes, etc. It is the westernmost representative of the Central Asian genus of Toad-headed Agamas ''Phrynocephalus'' and is only known from deserts and semideserts of Near Eastern countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran and E Turkey. There is an ongoing scientific debate about the phylogeny and the taxonomic format of ''Phrynocephalus persicus''. The most recent studies (Melnikov, et al. 2008, Solovyova et al. 2011) suggest existence of at least two distinct forms (subspecies, which are Persian Toad-Headed Agama (''Phrynocephalus persicus persicus'' De Filippi, 1863) from the Northern and Central Iran and Horvath's Toad-Headed Agama (''Phrynocephalus persicus horvathi'' Mehely, 1894) from Armenia, Azerbaijan, NW Iran and NE Turkey. The International Union for Conservation of Nature considers ''Phrynocephalus persicus'' and ''Phrynocephalus horvathi'' as two distinct species: the ''Persian Toad Headed Agama'' (''Phrynocephalus persicus'') is Vulnerable, while ''Phrynocephalus horvathi'' is critically endangered.〔
==Morphology==
The snout-vent length of the body and weight ranges between 2.3 cm and 0.4 g in newborns and 7 cm and 7.8 g in adults (Manvelyan, Tadevosyan, 2000). There is a sexual dimorphism in morphology (size, color) and behavior. Females are slightly larger than males. Notably, subspecies ''P. persicus persicus'' appears to have a shorter tail compared to that of ''P. persicus horvathi'', ("Phrynocephalus helioscopus horvathi" in author's understanding) (Melnikov et al. 2008).
''Phrynocephalus persicus'' as its other relatives does not have visible ear-drums. Head and body are quite wide and covered with small scales. There are no large shield on the head as for example in lacertidae lizards. Coloration in ''P. persicus'' is cryptic and usually corresponds to the color of the surrounding substrate, which makes the lizard almost invisible. Scales of different size, shape and color associated to create a mosaic pattern, which serves as camouflage allowing the lizard to blend in with the sandy substrate it inhabits. There are two major types of scales on the dorsal surface(Tadevosyan, 2001〔Tadevosyan T.L. 2001. The Fenological Identification of Persian Sun-Watcher Lizards (Phrynocephalus persicus de Filippi 1863. Reptilia, Sauria, Agamidae). // Collect. of articles of the young researchers. Yerevan, «Gitutiun», 1(2): pp. 62–67. (In Russian)〕). Flat scales usually carry a mix of black (malanin), white and orange (xanthines) pigments which create a brown-grey background color, while larger conical scales carry predominantly one type of a pigment (often melanin and xanthines). Accumulartions of conical scales create more or less symmetrically distributed dark spots of the color pattern. The dorsal pattern consists of transverse series of dark dots which form pronounced dark areas on the shoulders and the lumbar region of the body. The center of the back may carry 1–3 latitudinally spread groups of dark spots, or may be free of any pattern at all (Tadevosyan, 2001〔). There are usually 2–3 prolonged red surrounded by blue areas on the neck. Color of these areas serves as a "pregnancy indicator". In gravid females red coloration turns bluish-grey and areas become blue. Belly is white with bright orange wash in the rare (abdominal) part. Tail usually carries latitudinally striped pattern form dark and white segments. Ventral surface of the tail in lizards from Armenia is dark grey in males and yellowish in females.
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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