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this is a ground agama Agama aculeata

edit: the first page one is a ground agama too and not infact a tree agama

Thank you so much. I think he is rather beautiful.

Looks like a female Tree agama to me, the one on the first page looks like a non-breeding male tree agama (yellow tail showing somewhat).....

lol i guess we have to agree to disagree

Here is a Female Tree Agama

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3260/263 ... 997031.jpg

Agree Now?!

Aaah, yes I do agree now.

I shall eat some humble pie - I was wrong, not only about this one but also about the one on the front page. Hopefully its not too late for chirinda to come back and get the correct ID.

I have been told off not only by you but from a colleague who suggests that the main identifying feature is the black spot/patch on the shoulder. This is clear in both pictures and identifies it without doubt to being a tree agama. Ground agamas do not have this spot.

my apologies for being an oaf

Correction, she. Thank you RJ for your input. Thought there was tree-climbing somewhere with those claws. Also the markings are reminiscent of lichen on bark.

Appreciate your help, both of you.

Are these Bibron's thicktoed geckos? Seen in KTP in February 2010.





And any idea what the little black bettle might be?

Id agree with the ID, the beetle looks like a type of dung beetle?!

Thanks, RJ As for the possible dung beetle, wonder why would it be in the chalet (or on the deck) at Urikaruus?

Also, would the gecko eat it?

Pleasure, the beetle may have been attracted to the lights?! The gecko might choose it as a prey item, but would much prefer softer bodied insects like moths, that also are attracted to the lights.

Do dung bettles fly? Because the decks at Urikaruus are quite high off the ground.

The geckos had quite a feast on the mesh windows of my tent at KTC — all manner of moths and I later discovered (from an entemologist I met in Darling) that those gorgeous huge critters that look like big dragonflies with trsnlucent black and silvery wings but only come out at night are ant lions?!? The geckos feasted on those! Wish I'd been able to get some pix of them, as I think they are gorgeous, and of the geckos feasting on them — you could actually hear the crunch when a gecko caught one of those big critters — but the outside of those windows was high off the ground, so totally inaccessible

Yes, most species do in fact fly arks, but there are those that don't for instance the Addo flightless dung beetle!

Thanks, PL. There's LOTS that I don't know about insects

Even people who study insects, know little about insects (as a whole) They are just too complicated and diverse....So no need to