“Scientists have found a new lizard species in Asia. It has an orange tongue and is very small. It lives in forests and eats insects. It is named after a Chinese expert. The scientists want to protect its habitat.”
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| Photo: Yong Huang |
A new species of lizard with an orange tongue has been discovered in southern China and northern Vietnam by a team of researchers. The new species, named Calotes wangi or Wang’s garden lizard, belongs to a genus of agamid lizards that are widely distributed in Asia. The researchers suggest that the new species is not threatened, but its habitat is fragmented and it is used for medicinal and culinary purposes.
The genus Calotes contains at least 29 species of lizards that are mostly found in southern and southeastern Asia. Most of these species have narrow geographic distributions, except for Calotes versicolor, which ranges from southeastern Iran to southern China and Indonesia
The new species was discovered by a team of researchers from China and Vietnam, who conducted a series of field surveys in South China from 2009 to 2022. They collected a number of specimens of the Calotes versicolor species complex and found that the population in South China and Northern Vietnam was a new undescribed species and two subspecies. They used mitochondrial DNA and morphological characteristics to distinguish the new species from its congeners. They published their findings in a paper in the journal ZooKeys.
The new species, Calotes wangi, was named after Dr. Wang Yuezhao, a prominent herpetologist from China who has made significant contributions to the study of Asian reptiles. One of its distinguishing features is its orange tongue, which contrasts with its green body color. Calotes wangi is found in subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forests and tropical monsoon forests in southern China and northern Vietnam, mostly in mountainous areas, hills and plains on forest edges, arable land, shrub lands, and even urban green belts.
Calotes wangi is active from April to October every year, while in the tropics it is active from March to November or even longer. It eats a variety of insects, spiders, and other arthropods. It is active at the edge of the forest, and when it is in danger, it rushes into bushes or climbs tree trunks to hide. Investigations found that the lizards lie on sloping shrub branches at night, sleeping close to the branches.
The researchers estimate that the new species is not threatened, but they do note that in some areas its habitat is fragmented. In addition, their bodies are used medicinally and the lizards are also eaten. This is why they suggest that the local government strengthen the protection of their ecological environment and pay close attention to the population dynamics.
The discovery of Calotes wangi, a new species of lizard with an orange tongue, adds to the diversity and knowledge of Asian reptiles. The new species is not threatened, but its habitat is fragmented and it is exploited for medicinal and culinary purposes. The researchers hope that their findings will increase the awareness and conservation of the new species and its relatives. They report their discovery in a paper in the journal ZooKeys, which is an open-access journal that publishes taxonomic and biodiversity research.