Name That Lizard!

[loudy]

Hey guys, new here.

Got some shots of (what I feel) is a cool lizard that i crossed paths with at Edith Falls in Nitmiluk Nat'l Park, NT. Just wondering if any experts can manage to identify the little guy.

Cheers!

 

[fugawi]

I'll take a guess at a Northern Two Lined Dragon (Diporiphora Bilineata)?

 

[GeckPhotographer]

It is either a Dip. bilineata or Dip. magna, I really cannot tell from an in hand lizard so definitely not from a photo.

 

[jordanmulder]

I'd say diphora blineata

 

[waruikazi]

Good answer.

It is either a Dip. bilineata or Dip. magna, I really cannot tell from an in hand lizard so definitely not from a photo.

 

[longirostris]

The animal in your picture is Diporiphora magna. Common name, Yellow/Lemon Sided Two Lined dragon. I keep bilineata and magna and only the magna's display the prominent lemon colouring on the flanks as seen in the picture.

Hope this helps

Nice animal by the way, Looks like a young one. How big was it? My adults are 70-85mms SVL and TBL's up to 300mms. They are one of the bigger species in the Diporiphora group. Quite slender though, not chunky or robust like D. bennettii.

Cheers

 

[GeckPhotographer]

Hey longirostris if you are still there, can you tell me if this one is D.magna or D.bilineata? Sorry at the crappy pic this was really when I was just getting into photography, View attachment 208134


Edit: Looks like the uploader might be being a pain again.

 

[loudy]

Thanks

Hey guys,

Thanks for your help.

Is this a common lizard throughout Australia then?

How big was it? My adults are 70-85mms SVL and TBL's up to 300mms.

Sorry, Im no expert, so as for "SVL", I dont know where the 'vents' are, and cannot find a definition for "TBL"! From memory, I would judge it was about 150mm in body length (snout to bum) and had with quite a long tail (at least the size of the body).

Hope that give you some sort of idea.

Thanks again

 

[GeckPhotographer]

It is a common lizard throughout its range, but I would have to look up precisely where that is, I only know I have seen them in the Katherine and Kakadu areas.

 

[longirostris]

Hey longirostris if you are still there, can you tell me if this one is D.magna or D.bilineata? Sorry at the crappy pic this was really when I was just getting into photography, View attachment 208134


Edit: Looks like the uploader might be being a pain again.

Hi GeckPhotographer,

I am happy to look at your picture but I cannot open it. Is there any other way you can post it up

It is a common lizard throughout its range, but I would have to look up precisely where that is, I only know I have seen them in the Katherine and Kakadu areas.

Magna's are not as common as bilineata and not likely to be found around Kakadu, whereas bilineata are much more common and will definately be found at Kakadu.

Hey guys,

Thanks for your help.

Is this a common lizard throughout Australia then?



Sorry, Im no expert, so as for "SVL", I dont know where the 'vents' are, and cannot find a definition for "TBL"! From memory, I would judge it was about 150mm in body length (snout to bum) and had with quite a long tail (at least the size of the body).

Hope that give you some sort of idea.

Thanks again

SVL is an anachronism for Snout Vent Length. The vent is the "bum" as you put it, scientifically known as the cloaca. TBL is also an anachronism and means Total Body length. From your description of SVL the animal in the picture would be almost twice the size of any magna or bilineata I have ever seen or heard off.

D. magna and D. superba are the 2 biggest species of the Diporiphora genus and rarely if ever get beyond 100mm's SVL and generally have a tail length 3 times SVL. I appreciate that you are estimating the length for me from memory but at 150 mm SVL, the animal in your picture which appears typical of type, (tail length 3 times SVL), would be at least 550-600mm long making it the biggest D. magna ever recorded. To put it into inches (the old imperial measurement I still sort of use) your talking about a lizard that is between 22 and 24 inches long. That's extraordinary!

Are you reasonably comfortable with your estimate of size or do you think the animal might have been perhaps been a little smaller. It's a shame there is nothing in the pictures that allows for size comparison because you may have photographed a uniquely larger then usual specimen of D. magna

 

[GeckPhotographer]

Let me try and put it up again.

This was in Litchfield NP.

And ooops yes I was referring to bilineata when talking about commonness, had forgotten it was a magna, which I was unaware of how common they were. Thanks.

 

[longirostris]

Let me try and put it up again.

This was in Litchfield NP.

And ooops yes I was referring to bilineata when talking about commonness, had forgotten it was a magna, which I was unaware of how common they were. Thanks.

This animal is also D. magna. The black patch around the front flank area is usually found on D. magna. Although I have seen similar markings on bilineata and bennettii. In fact I have a male D. benettii that looks very similar to the animal in your picture but without the black patch. The pinkish tinge is almost identical. The male magna that I have is very similar to the one in the picture posted by loudy. It has the same lemon flank colouring and pinkish tinge and similar back markings but very little black marking around the foreleg. Not solid like the one in your picture

There is a lot of variation in appearance across several species in the Diporiphora group including magna. I have bred over a hundred D. australis over the last 3 years and I can honestly say that the variation even in the same clutch is amazing. I will get 1 male in a clutch that has a bright brown head yet in the same clutch another male will be drab grey with no noticeable markings not even the signature two lines down their backs.

I have seen the same level of variation in markings and colouring in D. bilineata although I have not bred quite so many of these and have seen this also in my D. bennettii. The only species in this group that I am familar with that appears to vary little from type is D. winneckei, the canegrass or blue lined dragon. I have bred more then 20 of these over the last 2 years and I can say that there is minimal variance in colour or marking from the original breeding group, amongst siblings or even from clutch to clutch.

Hope this helps

Cheers

 

[GeckPhotographer]

Thanks, very happy to get an id on this guy although its making me a little unhappy I did not get any pictures.

It is very interesting about the variance but probably to be expected for most species to be variable. Perhaps it is more interesting that D.wineckei does not vary.
When I was trying to id this guy before I talked to another biologist in the Darwin area but was not able to show them the picture and they also brought up the amazing variance of D.bilineata.