Podarcis melisellensis
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Dalmation Wall Lizard
Before lunch at a restaurant in Krka National Park, I had seen some Italian Wall Lizards basking on stones in a small raised rock garden in front of the building. After lunch, while people were meandering back to the bus, I circumnavigated the restaurant to see if any other herps were lurking about. Out back, on the ground, I saw this lizard herky-jerkily foraging for tasty bugs. At first I assumed it was the same species as the green ones out front, and then I thought it looked enough different that it could be a different species, and then after doing some online research and consulting my European field guide, I concluded that it was probably a juvenile or female of the same species after all. But knowledgeable European herpers at fieldherpforum.com and fieldherping.eu identified it as the closely-related species P. melissellensis instead.
Printed references:
- Arnold, E. N. and Ovenden, D. W. 2002. Reptiles and Amphibians of Europe