The Peloponnese wall lizard (''Podarcis peloponnesiacus'') is a species of

lizard Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia alt ...

in the family

Lacertidae The Lacertidae are the family (biology), family of the wall lizards, true lizards, or sometimes simply lacertas, which are native to Afro-Eurasia. It is a diverse family with at least 300 species in 39 genera. They represent the dominant group o ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the

Peloponnese The Peloponnese (), Peloponnesus (; el, Πελοπόννησος, Pelopónnēsos,(), or Morea is a peninsula and geographic regions of Greece, geographic region in southern Greece. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmu ...

region of southern

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

. Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s are Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetation, rocky areas,

arable land Arable land (from the la, arabilis, "able to be ploughed") is any land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops.''Oxford English Dictionary'', "arable, ''adj''. and ''n.''" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2013. Alternatively, for the ...

, pastureland,

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

s, and rural gardens.

Description

The Peloponnese wall lizard grows to a snout-to-vent length of about with a tail about twice the length of the body. Males are in general rather larger than females. It is a robust species with adult males having particularly large heads. The colouring is rather variable, basically being some shade of olive- or greyish-brown with a pale vertebral stripe and more clearly defined dorso-lateral pale stripes. The mottled flanks often have one or more blue spots above the shoulder and the blue colour may extend along the flanks in males. The underparts are red, orange or white and unspotted. Juveniles often have blue tails.

Behaviour

The Peloponnese wall lizard largely replaces the Greek rock lizard in the Peloponnese region. It is an agile species and climbs on rocks, walls and tree trunks. It often perches in an elevated position and can make long jumps between rocks. It often forages on the ground. The males are territorial during the breeding season and are very aggressive at this time. Females usually lay two clutches of up to six eggs, in crevices or concealed places, and the eggs take about six weeks to hatch, the newly hatched juveniles being about long.

Status

The Peloponnese wall lizard has a total area of occupancy of less than but it is common in suitable habitat within its range. The population is steady and faces no significant threats (apart from wildfires) and the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

has assessed its conservation status as being of "

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1572648 Podarcis Endemic fauna of Greece Lizards of Europe Reptiles described in 1833 Taxa named by Gabriel Bibron Taxa named by Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent Peloponnese Taxonomy articles created by Polbot