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Calotes
	C. versicolor, male
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Iguania
Family:	Agamidae
Subfamily:	Draconinae
Genus:	Calotes; Cuvier, 1817
Species
	29 species, see here

Calotes is a genus of lizards in the draconine clade of the family Agamidae. The genus contains 29 species. Some species are known as forest lizards, others as "bloodsuckers" due to their red heads, and yet others (namely C. versicolor) as garden lizards. The genus name Calotes has been derived from the Greek word Καλότης (Kalótës), meaning ‘beauty’, referring to the beautiful pattern of this genus.^[2]

Geographic range

Species in the genus Calotes are native to South Asia, southern China, mainland Southeast Asia and Ambon. Additionally, C. versicolor has been introduced to Florida (USA), Borneo, Sulawesi, the Seychelles, Mauritius and Oman.^[3] The greatest species richness of the genus is from the Western Ghats, northeast India, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Description

Calotes is distinguished from related genera in having uniform-sized dorsal scales, and lacking a fold of skin extending between the cheek and shoulder, and in having proportionately stronger limbs than Pseudocalotes. Compared to Bronchocela, Calotes have a proportionately shorter tail and limbs. Calotes as we know it today was classified by Moody (1980) prior to which all of the above-mentioned genera were included in this genus.

Taxonomy

The genus Calotes is still a heterogeneous group that may be divided into the C. versicolor and C. liocephalus groups.^[4] The former occurs through most of South Asia and further east. All species in this group have their dorsal and lateral scales directed upward. The latter is restricted to the southern Western Ghats and Sri Lanka. All species in this group have their scales directed back, or up and down, or down only. Whether further splitting is necessary or whether the groups constitute subgenera of a monophyletic Calotes remains to be studied.

Species

Listed alphabetically by specific name.^[5]

C. ceylonensis
Calotes bachae Hartmann et al., 2013^[6]
Calotes bhutanensis Biswas, 1975
Calotes calotes (Linnaeus, 1758) – common green forest lizard
Calotes ceylonensis (F. Müller, 1887) – painted-lip lizard, Ceylon bloodsucker
Calotes chincollium Vindum, 2003
Calotes desilvai Bahir & Maduwage, 2005 - Morningside lizard, Ceylon black-band whistling lizard
Calotes emma Gray, 1845 – Emma Gray's forest lizard, forest crested lizard
- Calotes emma alticristatus K.P. Schmidt, 1925
- Calotes emma emma Gray, 1845
Calotes farooqi Auffenberg & Rehman, 1995 – Farooq's garden lizard
C. mystaceus
Calotes geissleri Wagner, Ihlow, Hartmann, Flecks, Schmitz & Böhme, 2021
Calotes goetzi Wagner, Ihlow, Hartmann, Flecks, Schmitz & Böhme, 2021
Calotes grandisquamis Günther, 1864 – large-scaled forest lizard
Calotes htunwini Zug & Vindum, 2006
Calotes irawadi Zug, Brown, Schulte & Vindum, 2006
C. nemoricola
Calotes jerdoni Günther, 1870 – Jerdon's forest lizard
Calotes liocephalus Günther, 1872 – spineless forest lizard, crestless lizard, lionhead agama
Calotes liolepis (Boulenger, 1885) – whistling lizard, Sri Lanka agama
Calotes manamendrai (Amarasinghe & Karunarathna, 2014) – Manamendra-Arachchi's whistling lizard
Calotes maria Gray, 1845 – Khasi Hills forest lizard
Calotes medogensis (Zhao & S.-Q. Li, 1984) – Medog bloodsucker
Calotes minor (Hardwicke & Gray, 1827) – Hardwicke's bloodsucker
Calotes mystaceus (A.M.C. Duméril & Bibron, 1837) – Indo-Chinese forest lizard, blue-crested lizard
Calotes nemoricola Jerdon, 1853 – Nilgiri forest lizard
C. versicolor male.
Calotes nigrilabris (W. Peters, 1860) – black-cheek lizard
Calotes nigriplicatus Hallermann, 2000
Calotes paulus (M.A. Smith, 1935) – small forest lizard
Calotes pethiyagodai (Amarasinghe, Karunarathna & Hallermann, 2014)
Calotes sinyik PATEL et al. 2024^[7]
Calotes versicolor (Daudin, 1802) – Oriental garden lizard, changeable lizard, eastern garden lizard
Calotes vindumbarbatus Wagner, Ihlow, Hartmann, Flecks, Schmitz & Böhme, 2021
Calotes wangi Huang, H.-Y. Li, Wang, M.-J. Li, Hou & Cai, 2024
Calotes zolaiking Giri, Chaitanya, Mahony, Lalrounga, Lalrinchhana, A. Das, Sarkar, Karanth & Deepak, 2019 – Mizoram montane forest lizard

Two species formerly treated as members of the genus Calotes were separated into a new genus, Monilesaurus, in 2018.^[8]

Monilesaurus ellioti Günther, 1864 – Elliot's forest lizard
Monilesaurus rouxii A.M.C. Duméril & Bibron, 1837 – Roux's forest lizard, Roux's forest Calotes

Nota bene: A binomial authority in parentheses or a trinomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species or the subspecies was originally described in a genus other than Calotes.

Gallery

C. bachae
C. emma
C. grandisquamis
C. jerdoni
C. nigrilabris
C. paulus
A female Calotes at Pune, India.
A garden lizard, South India.

References

^ "Calotes". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 27 September 2023.
^ "Agassiz nomenclator zoologicus nomenclatore zoologico" (in Italian).
^ Calotes versicolor. The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org. Retrieved 17 January 2013
^ Smith MA (1935). The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. Reptilia and Amphibia. Vol II.—Sauria. London: Secretary of State for India in Council. (Taylor and Francis, printers). xiii + 440 pp. + Plate I + 2 maps. (Calotes groups, pp. 182-183)
^ Calotes. The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
^ Hartmann T, Geissler P, Poyarkov NA Jr, Ihlow F, Galoyan EA, Rödder D, Böhme W (2013). "A new species of the genus Calotes Cuvier, 1817 (Squamata: Agamidae) from southern Vietnam". Zootaxa 3599 (3): 246–260.
^ Patel, Harshil; Thackeray, Tejas; Sheth, Chintan; Khandekar, Akshay; Agarwal, Ishan (2024-10-15). "A new small-sized Calotes Cuvier (Squamata: Agamidae: Draconinae) from the Subansiri river basin, Arunachal Pradesh, India". Zootaxa. 5523 (2): 151–170. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.5523.2.1. ISSN 1175-5334.
^ Pal, Saunak; Vijayakumar, S.P.; Shanker, Kartik; Jayarajan, Aditi; Deepak, V. (2018). "A systematic revision of Calotes Cuvier, 1817 (Squamata: Agamidae) from the Western Ghats adds two genera and reveals two new species". Zootaxa. 4482 (3): 401–450. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4482.3.1. PMID 30313808.