LACERTIDAE—LACERTINAE EURASIAN LIZARDS he subfamily Lacertinae was the large sister keel-scaled, long-tailed lizards are the only Ttaxon to the Gallotinae. It was divided into representatives of the Lacertinae throughout most two tribes, the Eurasian Lacertini and the Afro- of their range from Amur, Russia, and Japan, to Asian Eremiadini, but authors now seem to prefer Bangladesh and Indonesia. elevating these tribes to subfamily level. The Many of the European genera were formerly Lacertinae has a primarily Mediterranean subgenera of Lacerta, which is now reduced to only distribution that spreads eastward into the Middle ten species, including the highly variably patterned East and Central Asia, although there is one Far Sand Lizard (L. agilis), which, although rare and East Asian and Southeast Asian genus, Takydromus, localized in its distribution in the UK, is found the Oriental grass lizards. The 24 species of across a huge swathe of territory from Europe to LACERTINAE Scelarcis, Takydromus, Teira, Timon, DISTRIBUTION and Zootoca Europe, and southwestern, Central, HABITATS Southeast, and Far East Asia Heathland, sand dunes, grassland, maquis, GENERA riverbanks, rocky outcrops and ruins, Algyroides, Anatololacerta, Apathya, coastal islands, and rocky mountains Archaeolacerta, Dalmatolacerta, SIZE Darevskia, Dinarolacerta, Hellenolacerta, SVL 1¾ in (45 mm) Pygmy Keeled Lizard Iberolacerta, Iranolacerta, Lacerta, (Algyroides fitzingeri) to 10¼ in (260 mm) Parvilacerta, Phoenicolacerta, Podarcis, European Eyed Lizard (Timon lepidus) 154 LACERTOIDEA—Lacertids and teiids the Lake Baikal region of Central Asia. Although Among the most attractive species are the male the range of the Sand Lizard is impressive, it is green-bodied, blue-throated Western and Eastern eclipsed by that of the Viviparous Lizard (Zootoca Green Lizards (L. bilineata and L. viridis respectively) vivipara), which occurs across Europe and Asia, and the green, blue eye-spotted European Eyed from Ireland in the west to Sakhalin Island in the Lizard (Timon lepidus), but the most ubiquitous east, and from the Arctic Circle of Scandinavia to European lizards are the numerous species of wall, northern Spain. Across most of its range this lizard rock, and ruin lizards (Podarcis). is viviparous, the only live-bearing member of the Lacertinae, but southern French and northern Spanish populations are oviparous. LEFT| The Sand Lizard (Lacerta agilis) is sexually dichromatic: males are bright green while females, like the one pictured, are primarily brown with black and white ocelli markings. TOP| The Viviparous Lizard ACTIVITY viviparous, producing 1–11 neonates, (Zootoca vivipara) is the northern-most Terrestrial, arboreal, saxicolous, or although populations in the south of its and most widely distributed lizard semi-fossorial; diurnal and heliophilic range are oviparous, producing 1–13 in the world. It is also the only REPRODUCTION leathery-shelled eggs viviparous species in the Lacertinae. Most genera and species are believed to be DIET oviparous, laying 1–4 or up to 23 (Eastern Invertebrates, including insects and spiders, ABOVE| Adult Eyed Lizards (Timon Green Lizard, Lacerta viridis) leathery- although large species (T. lepidus) prey on lepidus) are the largest European shelled eggs, with some species of smaller lizards lizards with a body pattern of green Darevskia reproducing parthenogenetically. and black, with blue ocelli markings The most northerly distributed species on the flanks. (Viviparous Lizard, Zootoca vivipara) is 155.