Acanthocercus ugandaensis
—
Uganda Tree Agama
Also known as:
Blue-headed Tree Agama, Blue-headed Agama, Blue-throated Agama, Black-necked Agama, Southern Tree Agama
This species was split from Acanthocercus atricollis by Wagner et al in 2018. Older literature calls this species Agama atricollis.
I half-heartedly chased this agama around a bush for ten minutes or so trying to get a good picture. I was too tired from a six-hour trek to see the mountain gorillas to make a decent adversary for this wary lizard.
Near Bwindi Impenetrable Forest I saw several gorgeous blue-throated examples of this species from our car window. Tragically, I didn't get a photo of any of those marvelous specimens. Instead, here are mediocre photos of a couple of plainer individuals near the visitor's center at Queen Elizabeth National Park. I don't know if the dark one on the brick is a female or a male that's not wearing his colorful breeding attire.
Online references:
- Agama atricollis account on Robert C. Drewes' Bwindi herps site
- Philipp Wagner, Eli Greenbaum, Aaron M. Bauer, Chifundera Kusamba & Adam D. Leaché, 2018. Lifting the blue-headed veil – integrative taxonomy of the Acanthocercus atricollis species complex (Squamata: Agamidae), Journal of Natural History, 52:13-16, 771-817
Printed references:
- Branch, B. 1998. Field Guide to Snakes and Other Reptiles of Southern Africa, third revised edition
- Obst, F. J., Richter, K., Jacob, U. 1988. The Completely Illustrated Atlas of Reptiles and Amphibians for the Terrarium
- Spawls, S. 2017. A Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles of the Maasai Mara
- Spawls, S., Howell, K., Hinkel, H., Menegon, M. 2018. A Field Guide to East African Reptiles, 2nd edition