THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Squamata (part)    Agamidae  

Variable Bloodsucker
Calotes versicolor Daudin, 1802

Current SSAR Comments:
Native to southern Asia. It was introduced via the pet trade in Broward and St. Lucie counties, Florida (Enge and Krysko, 2004, Florida Scientist 67: 226–230; Enge and Krysko, 2019, Calotes “versicolor” complex. Pages 352–353 in Krysko et al. (Editors) Amphibians and Reptiles of Florida. University Press of Florida, Gainesville, Florida), and is established in St. Lucie County after a reptile dealer imported and released lizards from Pakistan in 1978 (Enge and Krysko, 2004, op. cit.; Krysko et al., 2019, op. cit.). Zug et al. (2006, Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, Fourth Series 57: 35–68) demonstrated that C. versicolor is a species complex but did not include specimens from Pakistan or Florida to identify which cryptic species they belong to.

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2023.04.08.12.31.20)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.02 MB

First instance(s) of published English names:
Long-legged Calotes (Agama vultuosa: Gray, John E. 1830. A synopsis of the species of the class reptilia. Pages 1-110 in The Animal Kingdom Arranged in Conformity with its Organization by the Baron Cuvier, member of teh Institute of France, with Additional Descriptions of all the Species Hitherto Named, and of many not before noticed. Ninth Volume. Whittaker, Treacher, and Company, London, England. pp.); Indian Calotes (Calotes tiedemani: Gray, John E. 1830. A synopsis of the species of the class reptilia. Pages 1-110 in The Animal Kingdom Arranged in Conformity with its Organization by the Baron Cuvier, member of teh Institute of France, with Additional Descriptions of all the Species Hitherto Named, and of many not before noticed. Ninth Volume. Whittaker, Treacher, and Company, London, England. pp.);

Taxon Links:

  
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
  
The Reptile Database
  
NatureServe
  
iNaturalist
  
GenBank
  
USGS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

Pertinent LIterature:
1802 Daudin, Francois M. Histoire naturelle des rainettes, des grenouilles et des crapauds. [Natural history of tree frogs, frogs and toads.] Quarto version. de L'imprimerie de Bertrandet, Rue de Sorbonne, Paris, France. 468pp.
2004 Enge, Kevin M. and Kenneth L. Krysko. A new exotic species in Florida, the bloodsucker lizard, Calotes versicolor (Daudin 1802) (Sauria: Agamidae). Biological Sciences 67(3):226-230
2006 Zug, George R., Herrick H. K. Brown, James A. Schulte II, and Jens V. Vindum. Systematics of the Garden Lizards, Calotes versicolor group (Reptilia, Squamata, Agamidae), in Myanmar: Central dry zone populations. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, Fourth Series 57(2):35–68
2011 Meshaka, Walter E. Jr. A runaway train in the making: The exotic amphibians, reptiles, turtles, and crocodilians of Florida. Herpetological Conservation and Biology 6(Monograph 1):101
2019 Krysko, Kenneth L., Kevin M. Enge, and Paul E. Moler (Editor) Amphibians and Reptiles of Florida. University Press of Florida, Gainesville, Florida. 728pp.

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Tuesday 04 February 2025 22:04 CT