Persian Toad-headed Agama

Appearance

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 . There is a sexual dimorphism in morphology 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 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 criptic 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. Flat scales usually carry a mix of black , white and orange pigments which create a brown-grey background color, while larger conical scales carry predominantly one type of a pigment . 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 lattitudinally spread groups of dark spots, or may be free of any pattern at all . 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 part. Tail usually carries lattitudinally 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.

Naming

*''P. persicus persicus'' Solovyova et al.
⤷ ''P. persicus horvathi'' Solovyova et al.
⤷ ''P. helioscopus horvathi'' Méhely
⤷ ''P. helioscopus var. horvathi'' Méhely
⤷ ''P. horvathi'' Rostombekov

Status

The geographic range of the ''P. persicus'' does overlap with the range of intense land use. Therefore, a large scale habitat loss is the major threat for ''P. persicus''. On the other hand overgrazing, uncontrolled collection, road mortality as well as predation by larger animals have been documented as existing threats. Habitats of the lizard are preserved as small islets of semi-desert surrounded by agrarian lands. The species is preserved in the Goravan State Reservation in Armenia. Despite, positive experience in captive breeding of ''P. h. horvathi'' , no stable captive colonies available today.

Behavior

Phylogeny within the genus ''Phrynocephalus'' is not well understood yet. There is a lack of data and controversy between opinions regarding both phylogenetic relationships and species vs. subspecies status of the different forms ''Phrynocephalus helioscopus'' and ''Phrynocephalus persicus'', also called the "helioscopus-persicus complex". The most recent works suggest evidence supporting both. In 2008, Melnikov et al. also proposed a distinction of ''P. horvathi'' at the species level.

This lizard's life span is only about 2.5–3 years, and juveniles become adults at an age less that one year old. Persian Toad Headed Agamae feed on a variety of available arthropods ranging from ants, small spiders to beetles and orthopterans. Even venomous arthropods as spiders, bees and wasps can be ingested by this lizard.

The Persian Toad-Headed Agama is oviparous, which means that a female lays eggs to reproduce. Females may make 1–3 clutches of 2–4 small eggs, depending on the duration of the worm season, which, in its turn, heavily depends on elevation of the local terrain. The female lays the eggs into a narrow around 30 cm deep burrow she has dug into the sand . During the period of gravidity, females demonstrate a specifically aggressive behavior towards conspecifics and other invaders as well . This behavior includes walking on extended rear limbs with an inflated abdomen, collateral rotations of the curved end of the tail, tail-markings on the sand, and open mouth attacks .