Andre Marais sent me a photograph of a Spotted
Toad-headed Agama, identified due to its colouration, size and shape,
transverse bars on the body and tail and the fact it was in Sabkha habitat
rather than sandy habitat. Andre has kindly allowed me to use his photo om my website. The Spotted Toad-headed Agama (Phrynocephalus
maculatus), also called the Blacktail Toad-headed Agama, is a member of the
Agamidae family, and has a body colour that is highly variable, but typically
has distinct brown bars across the body and tail. It also tends to match the
colour of its background and lizards found on pale coastal sands tend to be
paler and less patterned than those on red, inland sands. The agamid lizards
are also known as the chisel-teeth lizards due to the compressed, fused teeth
being firmly attached to the upper jaw, unlike most other lizards which have
loosely attached teeth. The head is short and broad, with a deep forehead and
snub nose, and the flattened body is wide and strong and covered in rough skin
with overlapping scales. The long, flattened tail is rounded at the base and has
a black tip on the underside which, when raised, is used in visual signals. The
spotted toad-headed agama is known from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan,
Syria, Oman, northern Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. The
species inhabits harder sandy surfaces where it is often associated with
coastal salt flats known as ‘sabkhas’ ad rocky islands. The Arabian Toad-headed
Agama prefers sandy desert areas. They are active in all but the hottest hours
of the day looking for insect prey and during the hottest periods, they will
stand high on extended legs to limit contact with the sand, balancing on
fingertips and heels while using the tail as a prop. They are able to sink
rapidly into the sand by vibrating the body in a process called ‘shimmy
burial’, and it uses this behaviour to escape from predators or create a
nocturnal shelter. They lay eggs, producing a clutch of one to seven which are
incubated for around six to eight weeks in a burrow.
Two species of Toad-headed Agama live in the region
with Arabian Toad-headed Agama (P. arabicus) being the second species.
The species are relatively easy to identify by the relatively longer tail
compared to snout-vent length in P. maculatus of 130-160%, as opposed to
100-125% in P. arabicus. The two species can also be told apart by their
shape, colour & number of scales present between the eye and lip. P.
arabicus is short-bodied dark grey above with creamy white spots and the
upper-side of the tail paler than the body and lacking the spots. The ventral
body parts were white with the under-side of the tail orange from the vent to
the dark tail band and the species has three to four scales between the eye and
lip. P. maculatus is relatively slim and long-bodied and appears larger
than P. arabicus and has five to six scales between the eye and lip. The
upper-side of the body is sandy grey with five broad dark brown cross bars,
with the bars continuing on the tail from vent to the end of the tail with a
longer dark terminal tail band, about 20% of the tail length (Al Sirhan &
Brown 2010).