Beddome's snake-eye, Beddome’ s lacerta
Ophisops beddomei, commonly known as Beddome's snake-eye or Beddome’ s lacerta, is a species of lizard in the family Lacertidae. The species is a diurnal and fast-moving terrestrial lizard, which is endemic to the Western Ghats of India.
O. beddomei is named after Richard Henry Beddome, 1830-1911, British army officer and botanist.
Diurnal animals are active during the daytime, with a period of sleeping or other inactivity at night. The timing of activity by an animal depends ...
Te
TerrestrialTerrestrial animals are animals that live predominantly or entirely on land (e.g., cats, ants, snails), as compared with aquatic animals, which liv...
Oviparous animals are female animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive...
Precocial species are those in which the young are relatively mature and mobile from the moment of birth or hatching. Precocial species are normall...
O
starts withO. beddomei is very similar to O. jerdonii. O. beddomei has two or three frontonasals on a transverse line, one or two azygos prefrontals nearly always are present, and the first and fourth supraoculars are usually broken up into several very small shields or granules. Lateral scales are distinctly smaller than the dorsals; 28 to 32 scales occur around the body. Femoral pores number eight to 13. Coloration is as in O. jerdonii, but the upper lateral light streak is frequently absent.
O. beddomei is found in Western India in the Indian states of Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashta, and Tamil Nadu.
The type locality is given as "Bremnagherry hills" (Brahmagiri Hills), Wayanad.
The preferred natural habitats of O. beddomei are grassland, shrubland, and forest, at altitudes of 200–1,000 m (660–3,280 ft).
O. beddomei is oviparous.
