Monilesaurus PAL, VIJAYAKU, MAR, SHANKER, JAYARAJAN & DEEPAK, 2018

Monilesaurus ellioti GÜNTHER, 1864

Elliot´s Forest Lizard

GÜNTHER, A. (1864): Description of Calotes ellioti. – In: “The Reptiles of British India”. London (Taylor & Francis), xxvii + 452 pp.

Monilesaurus rouxii (DUMÉRIL & BIBRON, 1837)

Roux´s Forest Lizard

BAJRU, S., YADAV, O. & S. YANKANCHI (2016): Daily activity patterns and perch height utilization in pre-breeding season by forest Calotes, Calotes rouxii (Sauria: Agamidae) in the Sacred Grove of the Northern Western Ghats. – Int. J. Zool. Res., 12: 18-24.

Although, the Forest Calotes Calotes rouxii is the most common and endemic species of lizard inhabiting the Western Ghats, information on its ecology is remain scarce. In order to better understanding of life history of C. rouxii , we investigated its pre breeding activity patterns and microhabitat utilization in a small sacred grove (~0.65 ha) of the northern Western Ghats. Calotes rouxii showed a unimodal activity pattern, peak activity period was observed at late morning (11.00-12.30 h) and afternoon (13.00-15.45 h). The activity patterns of lizards involved basking and resting at early morning period. Once they attained optimum body temperature at peak period activities such as moving, social displays and foraging were performed. In late afternoon all activities were decreased and they retreat to their refuge sites. Sex specific microhabitat segregation was detected; males occupied higher perches than females. The males encounter during study period were positively correlated with temperature while negatively correlated with humidity, however females encountered were not correlated with humidity and temperature.

DUMÉRIL, A.M.C. & G. BIBRON (1837): Description of Calotes rouxii; C. mystaceus. – In: “Erpétologie Générale ou Histoire Naturelle Complete des Reptiles”. Vol. 4. Libr. Encyclopédique Roret, Paris, 570.

MARONDE, M. (1993): Calotes rouxii DUMÉRIL & BIBRON. - Sauria, Berlin, 15: 2. (1173)

PANDAV, B.N. et al (2010): Population densities of the Forest Lizard Calotes rouxii from Karnataka State, south India. – Hamadryad, 35 (1): 100-102.

SHANBHAG, B.A., AMMANNA, V.H.F. & S.K. SAIDAPUR (2010): Natural history notes: Calotes rouxi (Forest Dwarf Calotes). Captive reproduction and breeding behavior. – Herpetol. Rev., 41 (1): 74.

SREEKAR, R., SAINI, K., RAO, S.N. & C.B. PURUSHOTHAM (2011): Predicting lizard gender: sexual dimorphism in Calotes rouxii (Reptilia: Agamidae) from Agumbe, Karnataka, India. – Herpetol. Cons. Biol., 6 (1): 75-80.

Roux’s Forest Lizard, Calotes rouxii (Reptilia: Agamidae), does not exhibit distinct dimorphism characters outside the breeding season. Ornamentation and the swelling around the cloaca in males are the primary characters in determining sex and detectable only during the breeding season. We used univariate and multivariate analyses to determine if other morphological characters could be used to determine the sex of an adult Calotes rouxii outside the breeding season. We analyzed seven morphological features of 33 adult lizards from an Areca catechu plantation in Agumbe, Karnataka, India. Male snout-vent length (SVL) exceeded that of females and male head size (head length and head width) was greater than that of females with the same SVL. Males exhibited greater tail length and tail width, and females exhibited greater trunk size (trunk length and body width). All seven characters were used to correctly classify males and females with 100% accuracy. However, tail length and tail width were found to be significant morphological characters with very little overlap in values that could help in predicting the sex 96% of the time.

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