Whilst in Tanoumah I found a lizard that looks like Pale Agama Trapelus pallidus hassion a large roadside boulder and another on a dry-stone wall in the Tanoumah area. The species is normally found in rocky areas and open plains, preferring vegetation areas. This lizard has a medium-sized body up to15 cm in length, with a tail up to 30 cm.
The general body color is light gray, characterized with rhomboidal strikes on the back with dark rings on the tail. The head isrelatively large and triangle shaped. The limbs end with long sharp clawed fingers. Dorsal color sandy gray, back usually with 4 brown transverse bands; the band at mid-body is weakly defined or absent.
Tail barred. Venter white; throat usually plain, sometimes with faint marks. Dorsal pattern becomes rather inconspicuous in adult males. In nuptial condition, the whole head becomes pale lead-gray in males, while in females it is suffused pale orange-red. Juveniles are sandy gray with a strong dorsal pattern.
Jem Babbington
Jem Babbington is a keen birder and amateur photographer located in Dhahran, Eastern Saudi Arabia where he goes birding every day. Jem was born in England and is a serious local patch and local area birder who has been birding for almost forty years and has birded in more than fifty countries. Jem is learning to ring birds in Bahrain as a perfect way to learn more about the birds of the area. Saudi Arabia is a very much under-watched and under-recorded country.
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