Description: The agama lizard is characterized by its whitish underside, buff brown back limbs and tail with a slightly lighter stripe down the middle and six to seven dark patches to the side of this stripe. There is some sexual dimorphism. The subordinate males, females, and adolescents possess an olive green head. A blue body and yellow tail and head characterize the dominant male. A. agama has a large head separated from the body, a long tail, well-developed external ear openings and eyelids. This lizard also has acrodont, heterodont teeth. The lizard possesses both caniniform incisors for grasping and molariform cheekteeth for crushing. The maximum size for male lizards is twenty-five centimeters and female lizards is twenty centimeters.

Habitat: Rainbow lizards can occupy urban, suburban and wild areas that supply enough vegetation for reproduction and insects for food.

Range: Agama picticauda occurs in West Africa, from Mauritania in the west to Nigeria in the east.

Introduced Range: Agama picticauda was first introduced to Florida in 1976 through the pet trade. First colonizing Homestead and other areas in Miami-Dade. Since then it has spread elsewhere in South Florida including the Keys. Sightings in South Florida rapidly increased at the end of 2020, indicating that the population has recently also increased rapidly.

Found in these States: FL

Diet: Common agamas are primarily insectivores, but they have been known to eat small mammals, reptiles and vegetation such as flowers, grasses, and fruits. Their diet consists of mainly ants, grasshoppers, beetles and termites. They catch their prey using their tongue, the tip of which is covered by mucous glands that enable the lizard to hold to smaller prey.

Reproduction: Oviparous; this species was the first lizard in which Temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD) was discovered, over 50 years ago. Females are produced at relatively cool temperatures and males at warmer temperatures.

Status: A. picticauda used to be considered as a synonym of A. agama but some recent authors consider it as valid after Wagner resurrected it. However, it’s validity remains contentious.

Subspecies: None

Taxonomy: