East African Lizards - ID help please

East African Lizards - ID help please

Postby AJP » Sun Jan 20, 2013 11:27 pm

These photos were taken on two recent trips of Kenya & Tanzania. I'm struggling to identify most of these of any help would be great. Many thanks, Alex

Chameleon:

Found crossing the road in Tsavo West NP. I was thinking this was probably Chamaeleo dilepis or C.gracilis but couldn't narrow it down to be sure.
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Agamids:
Two Agamids from Taita Hills Wildlife Sanctuary

Female Common agama (Agama agama)?
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Spiny Agama
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Tarangire Agama - Agama agama?
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Lygodactylus Geckos:

Masai Mara - possibly L.capensis, found together so presumably male & female
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Taita Hills Wildlife Sanctuary - possibly L.capensis
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Shimba Hills Lodge - L. picturatus or possibly L.mombasicus
Saw similar individuals as Diani beach (on tree trunks)

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Hemidactylus Geckos:
A selection from various buildings, largely at Diani. Likely mostly H. mabouia but possibly also H.frenatus from Wasini?

Diani:
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Taita Hills Wildlife Sanctuary:
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Wasini Island, Kenya coast
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Re: East African Lizards - ID help please

Postby Westley Price » Mon Jan 21, 2013 8:32 am

Hi There AJP

Great series of finds. No snakes?

I can offer a bit of insight into IDs, but as a foreigner to East Africa, my IDs are also simply educated guesses.

The Chamaeleo dilepis group are quite difficult for me to differentiate, but from when I was working in the DRC, we found both species; my only definitely observation was that C. gracilis is longer and more slender that C. dilepis. From that observation, I think your animal is C. gracilis.

Your first female Agama I rather think is A. lionotus, which are very common in East Africa. They often have that broken orange lateral stripe like your specimen has. And yes, female of course. I might be wrong, but I actually think that all your Agama observations of of this one species.

In RSA, Lygodactylus capensis is typically very dull coloured with minimal pattern, nothing like the specimen you posted. I rather think your specimen are Lygodactylus keniensis. They actually look a lot like L. stevensoni from Zimbabwe, but of course you were outside the distribution.

And the boldly patterned one, I agree, it is likely L. mobamsicus.

Thank you for the topic. I really enjoyed it!
"I am dying by inches from not having anybody to talk to about insects." - Charles Darwin
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Re: East African Lizards - ID help please

Postby AJP » Wed Jan 23, 2013 12:05 am

Hi Wesley,

Many thanks for your kind comments and suggestions...much appreciated. No snakes at all which was a bit of a surprise, never easy to track down though.

Cheers

Alex
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Re: East African Lizards - ID help please

Postby A.l.dodomae » Mon Jun 15, 2015 5:54 pm

The ones labeled agama agama are most likely either Agama lionotus lionotus or A.l.dodomae. A.l.lionotus are more common throughout Kenya while A.l.dodomae are more found throughout Tanzania.
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