Pseuderemias are small to medium-sized dorso-laterally compressed lacertids with very narrow snouts. Each nostrils is surrounded by four nasal scales and is not reached by the first supralabial. The upper head shields are smooth, rugose or pitted. The eyes have movable lids. There is no vertebral series of enlarged scales down the middle of the back, the dorsal scales are roughly homogeneous. A collar is present. The ventral scales are smooth and arranged in six to ten longitudinal rows. The toes are strongly compressed and the subdigital lamellae are keeled. The tail is long, up to three times as long as head and body. Femoral pores are present.
The ground colour is greyish or light brown to brownish red, brick red, dark brown or almost black. On the back there are usually some creme or whitish stripes and/or dots which are arranged in longitudinal lines. Some species like P. erythrosticta lack stripes and are spotted with dark dots. Hatchlings are generally more intensely striped than adults.[3][4][5]
Habitat and natural history
Only one species (P. mucronata) reaches north to Egypt and inhabits along the Red Sea coastal dunes and sandy plains with fairly good vegetation cover.[5] Other species are distributed in low-lying, arid Somali-Masai Acacia-Commiphora deciduous bushland and semi-desert shrubland vegetation in eastern Africa.[3]
Little is known of the natural history of Pseuderemias species. They are small diurnal, active, terrestrial lacertids that feed on small insects and other arthropods and lay eggs.
Laurent, R.F.; Gans, C. (1965): Lizards. pp. 25–45 in: Gans, C.; Laurent R.F.; Pandit H.: Notes on a herpetological collection from the Somali Republic. Annales du Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale (8vo), Sciences Zoologiques, Tervuren, 134: 1-93.
Spawls, S.; Howell, K.M.; Drewes, R.C.; Ashe, J. (2002): A Field Guide to the Reptiles of East Africa. - San Diego, San Francisco, New York, Boston, London (Academic Press, Elsevier Science).
