CONSERVATION PROGRAM

FOR PERSIAN TOAD HEADED LIZARD

Morphology

The snout-vent length of the wide body ranges between 2.3 cm in newborns and 7 cm in adults. There is a sexual dimorphism in size, color and morpology. The weight of the Persian Toad Headed Agama ranges between 0.4 and 7.8 g. Females are slightly larger than males. Notably, subspecies P. persicus persicus appears to have a shorther tail compared to that of P. persicus horvathi (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 2 major types of scales on the dorsal surface(Tadevosyan, 2001[6]). Flat scales usually carry a mix of black (malanin), white and orange (xantines) pigments which create a brown-grey background color, while larger conical scales carry predominantly one type of a pigment (often melanin and xantines). Accumulartions of conical scales create more or less simmetrically distributed dark spots of the color pattern. Coloration in P. persicus is criptic and usually corresponds to the color of the surrounding substrate, which makes the lizard almost invisible. 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 lattitudinally spread groups of dark spots, or may be free of any pattern at all (Tadevosyan, 2001[7]). There are usually 2-3 prolonged red surrounded by blue spots on the neck. In gravid females red coloration turns bluish-grey and spots become blue. Belly is white with bright orange wash in the rare part. Tail usually carries lattitudinaly striped patten form almost black and almost white segments. Ventral surface of the tail is dark grey in males and yellowish in females.

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