Draco maculatus

Draco maculatus
Preserved museum specimen
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Iguania
Family: Agamidae
Subfamily: Draconinae
Genus: Draco
Species: D. maculatus
Binomial name
Draco maculatus
(Gray, 1845)
Synonyms
  • Dracunculus maculatus Gray, 1845
  • Draco maculatus Cantor, 1847
  • Draco haasei Boettger, 1893
  • Draco maculatus Boulenger, 1885[1]

Draco maculatus, commonly known as the spotted flying dragon, is a species of agamid flying lizard endemic to Southeast Asia. It is capable of gliding from tree to tree.

Description

Head small; snout a little longer than the diameter of the orbit; nostril lateral, directed outwards; tympanum scaly. Upper head-scales unequal, strongly keeled; a compressed prominent scale on the posterior part of the superciliary region; 7 to 11 upper labials. The male's gular appendage very large, always much longer than the head, and frequently twice as long; female also with a well-developed but smaller gular sac. Male with a very small nuchal crest. Dorsal scales but little larger than the ventrals, irregular, smooth or very feebly keeled; on each side of the back a series of large trihedral keeled distant scales. The fore limb stretched forwards reaches beyond the tip of the snout; the adpressed hind limb reaches a little beyond the elbow of the adpressed fore limb, or to the axilla. Greyish above, with more or less distinct darker markings; a more or less distinct darker interorbital spot; wing-membranes above with numerous small round black spots, which are seldom confluent, beneath immaculate or with a few black spots; a blue spot on each side of the base of the gular appendage.[2]

From snout to vent length, 82 mm (3.2 in); tail, 115 millimetres (4.5 in).[2]

Subspecies

The following four subspecies (or races) are recognized, including the nominotypical subspecies:[1]

Geographic range

From Assam and Yunnan to Singapore.

Southern China (Hainan, Guangxi, Yunnan, Tibet), India (E. Himalayas to Assam), Bangladesh (Satchari National Park, Sylhet), Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and W. Malaysia.

Notes

  1. 1 2 The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
  2. 1 2 Boulenger GA. 1890. The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. Reptilia and Batrachia. London: Secretary of State for India in Council. (Taylor and Francis, printers). xviii + 541 pp. (Draco maculatus, p. 112).

References

External links

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