Calotes mystaceus

1 Overview

The white-lipped tree lizard (Calotes mystaceus), also known as the arrow-spined agama, is distributed in Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and China’s Yunnan.

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Reptilia

Order: Squamata

Suborder: Lacertilia

Family: Agamidae

Genus: Calotes

Species: White-lipped tree lizard (C. mystaceus)

2 Physical Characteristics

The white-lipped tree lizard is a small lizard, about 90 mm in body length, with a tail over twice the head-body length. It favors hills and farmland edges.

Its body scales are imbricate and keeled; dorsal scales point backward, with a row of nuchal crest scales along the midline. Limbs are well developed, with five fingers and toes each, clawed but unwebbed. The dorsal body is brown with radial black markings around the eyes and several continuous diamond-shaped spots on the back; a milky-yellow brown band runs along each side. The belly is pale brown. It lives below 1,600 m in subtropical forest, shrub, and grass; it eats insects and is oviparous. In China it is found in Yunnan and Guangxi, within Yunnan in parts of west and south Yunnan.

3 Care Guidelines

Keeping the white-lipped tree lizard as a pet requires attention to temperature, humidity, and enclosure size.

The white-lipped tree lizard likes humid tropical rainforest; the enclosure must stay at about 75% humidity, with a temperature around 25-30 deg C, and an enclosure ideally 150x80x120 cm. It feeds mainly on small insects. It generally inhabits mountain forest edges and farmland margins, at elevations of 820-1,100 m.

4 Care Guidelines

The white-lipped tree lizard is found in Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and China’s Yunnan, and is an agamid lizard of the genus Calotes. It generally inhabits mountain forest edges and farmland margins.

It lives at elevations of 820-1,100 m; its type locality is Myanmar. It likes humid tropical rainforest, so the enclosure must stay at about 75% humidity, with a temperature around 25-30 deg C, and an ideal enclosure size of 150x80x120 cm.

5 Feeding Requirements

When keeping the white-lipped tree lizard, the main question is what it eats. Like many small lizards, because it is small you can offer various small insects and larvae.

The white-lipped tree lizard is an agamid of the genus Calotes, found in Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and China’s Yunnan, generally at mountain forest edges and farmland margins, at elevations of 820-1,100 m. Its type locality is Myanmar.