Hardwicke's bloodsucker

Physical structure: This is a small stocky and pot-belly lizard with a short tail. Its head large and elongated, flat above, sloping towards snout.[2] Its dorsal scales larger, strongly imbricate and keeled, pointing backward and upward, ventral scales smaller than dorsal; upper head scales larger, unequal, strongly keeled or tubercular.[3] Females are larger than the males.[1]

Color pattern: Dorsal color is olive-brown with three rows of dark-brown light edged spots on the back and base of the tail; spots of middle row are most prominent and rhomboidal; a white streak on each side of the neck is bifurcating behind and an oblique one from the eye to the angle of mouth; limbs are with dark-brown cross bars; throat is profusely spotted with dark-brown and orange; belly is yellowish-white with numerous orange dots.[3] Color inside the mouth is ink-blue.[4] Females are more brilliantly colored during breeding season.[1]

Length: Maximum:18 cm,[2] Common:10 cm. (Snout to vent 6 cm.)[2]

Found in Bangladesh (southeast part of the country), India (Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Odissa) and Pakistan (Sindh).

Bengali: আগামা গিরিগিটি, পাতি রক্তচোষা, পাতিয়াল গিরিগিটি (Patial girigiti), হার্ডউইকের গিরিগিটি।

English: Hardwicke's bloodsucker, Hardwicke's short-tail agama, dwarf rock agama, and lesser agama.

Hindi & other Indian languages: ?

Urdu & Sindhi: ?

This lizard is terrestrial and sometimes arboreal; inhabits frequently fragmented dry forest, arid environments, barren desert and desolate areas across the Indo-Gangetic plains.[1]

This lizard is diurnal and crepuscular. It shelters in burrows close to the roots of thorny bushes.[1] Generally it is found sitting on stones, but it can climb up shrubby vegetation. It is sluggish in movements, often not attempting to escape when approached.[3] It is a docile species.[5]

This lizard is mainly insectivorous; feeding on grasshoppers and their nymphs, earwigs, beetles, bugs, arthropods and spiders.[3] Sometimes it also eats flowers.[1]

This lizard is oviparous; the breeding season extends from April to June; it lays four to six hard shelled white eggs in burrows under the roots of vegetation.[1]

There are no known practical uses of this species, but it plays a role in the eco-system by eating various types of insects and otherwise.

This lizard is non-venomous and completely harmless to humans.[6]

The species-name minor, a Latin word, meaning 'less' or 'smaller', also referring to the smaller size of this agamid.[7]

This lizard has a reputation for being particularly harmful, which is totally baseless and has contributed much to its depletion.[1]

• Blyth, E., 1856, Proceedings of the Society. Report of the Curator. J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal 25:448-449
• Boulenger, G.A., 1885, Catalogue of the Lizards in the British Museum (Nat. Hist.) I. Geckonidae, Eublepharidae, Uroplatidae, Pygopodidae, Agamidae. London: 450 pp.
• Boulenger, George A., 1890, The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. Reptilia and Batrachia. Taylor & Francis, London, xviii, 541 pp.
• Günther, A., 1864, The Reptiles of British India. London (Taylor & Francis), xxvii + 452 pp.
• Hardwicke, F.R. & Gray, J.E., 1827, A synopsis of the species of saurian reptiles, collected in India by Major-General Hardwicke. Zool. J. London 3: 214-229
• Manthey, U. & Schuster, N., 1999, Agamen, 2. Aufl. Natur und Tier Verlag (Münster), 120 pp.
• Smith, M.A., 1935, Reptiles and Amphibia, Vol. II. in: The fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Taylor and Francis, London, 440 pp.

• Calotes minor at the Reptarium.cz Reptile Database
• "The Reptile Database". 6 May 2010. Archived from the original on 2010-05-06. Retrieved 24 January 2022.