Calotes aurantolabium

Taxobox | name = Orange-lipped forest lizard
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Reptilia
ordo = Squamata
subordo = Iguania
familia = Agamidae
genus = "Calotes"
species = "aurantolabium"
binomial = "Calotes aurantolabium"
binomial_authority = Shreyas Krishnan, 2008

The Orange-lipped forest lizard ("Calotes aurantolabium") is an agamid lizard found in the forests of the southern Western Ghats and is currently known from the Kalakkad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve. The species was formerly wrongly synonymized with "Calotes andamanensis" of the Andaman Islands.

Description

"Calotes aurantolabium" is diagnosed by having orange colored upper lips, green body; acutely keeled scales over body (dorsally and ventrally), head, and throat; postero-ventral orientation of the dorsal scales; antehumeral pit absent; 63 scales around midbody; small tympanum (5.5% HL); toe III and IV subequal. Distinguished from "Calotes andamanensis" in having acutely keeled dorsals, all of which are directed posteroventrally; antehumeral pit absent; acutely keeled ventrals, limb and head scales; smaller occipital, nuchal, temporal regions. Distinguished from all known species of the "Calotes versicolor" group in having posteroventral orientation of dorsal scales (posterodorsal in "C. versicolor" group). Distinguished from species of the "Calotes liocephalus" group in lacking antehumeral pit, and in having a proportionately smaller head, ulnar length proportionately longer, tibial length proportionately shorter. Distinguished from "Calotes rouxii" and "Calotes ellioti" in lacking an antehumeral fold and spines, toe-IV and III subequal.

Holotype Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) 1436 (Orange-lipped forest lizard) an adult female, collected by N. M. Ishwar at Kakkachi in Kalakkad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve, Tamil Nadu, India in 1997.

References

* Boulenger, G.A. 1891 On new or little known Indian and Malayan reptiles and batrachians. Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (6) 8: 288-292
* Ishwar, N.M. & Das, I. 1998 Rediscovery of "Calotes andamanensis" Boulenger 1891, and a reassessment of the type locality. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 95: 513-514
* Krishnan, S. 2008. New Species of "Calotes" (Reptilia: Squamata: Agamidae) from the Southern Western Ghats, India. Journal of Herpetology. 42:3 530-535.