Flying Dragon (Draco)

1 Overview

Known popularly as the flying snake or flying dragon, Draco is a genus of strikingly built lizards: each side of the body carries 5 to 7 pairs of elongated ribs that support a fold of skin, the patagium, which functions as a wing. Different species vary in the colour and pattern of the patagium and throat pouch.

Chinese Name: Fei Xi (Flying Dragon)

English Name: Flying Dragon, Flying Lizard

Binomial: Draco sp. (genus of 41 species)

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Reptilia

Order: Squamata

Family: Agamidae

Subfamily: Draconinae

Genus: Draco

Distribution: tropical forests of South and Southeast Asia; body length 15 to 25 cm.

2 Physical Characteristics

The genus is unmistakable. The head bears a well-developed throat pouch and triangular lateral neck pouches, and the body carries patagia supported by 5 to 7 pairs of elongated ribs. Patagium and throat-pouch colours differ by species. China has two: the naked-ear flying dragon (Draco blanfordii) and the spotted flying dragon (Draco maculatus), found in Yunnan, Tibet, Guangxi and Hainan, living in tropical and subtropical forest at 700 to 1,500 m and rarely descending to the ground.

Note: these are the true gliders. The common agama (Agama agama) covered elsewhere does NOT glide — that confusion arises from the flying dragon, not from agamas.

3 Captive Habitat

With 41 species in the genus, captive care demands attention to a strongly arboreal lifestyle — the enclosure should include branches for resting. China’s two species inhabit tropical and subtropical forest at 700 to 1,500 m, so the captive setup should mimic that wild environment as closely as possible; they spend their lives in the trees and seldom come down.

4 Feeding

Beyond a suitable environment, flying dragons need balanced nutrition. When moving through the branches the patagium folds like a fan against the back; when gliding between trees it spreads outward. Gliding can change direction but cannot gain height. The diet is insects, and they are oviparous, laying 2 to 5 eggs in a burrow or tree hollow.