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My 250th (Peninsular Rock Agama)


My 250th (Peninsular Rock Agama)
Photo Information
Copyright: Haraprasan Nayak (haraprasan) Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1320 W: 96 N: 3556] (13068)
Genre: Animals
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2008-04-20
Categories: Reptiles
Camera: Canon EOS 400D, Tamron 18-200mm F3,5-6,3 XR DiII LD Asp, Kenko UV 62mm
Exposure: f/6.3, 1/125 seconds
Details: (Fill) Flash: Yes
More Photo Info: [view]
Photo Version: Original Version, Workshop
Theme(s): Milestones [view contributor(s)]
Date Submitted: 2008-04-27 1:23
Viewed: 643
Favorites: 1 [view]
Points: 65
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
This is my 250th post here on TN. I am very much thankful to all my seniors, juniors and friends for there support and help.

I dedicate this post to Sumon da (Mana) and Bayram (boreocypriensis). For Sumon Da as he gave the information of this beautiful reptile and where to find. And for Bayram as this is his subject of interest. Hope you will like.

Many many thanks to Satya Mishra (kunusatyabbsr) for exactly identifying this reptile.

The Peninsular Rock Agama Psammophilus dorsalis is a common species of agama found on rocky hills in south India (Malabar, Mysore, Nilgiris, S Arcot, Nallamali Hills).
Head rather large, elongate, depressed, the cheeks swollen in the adult male ; snout longer than the orbit; upper head-scales unequal, smooth or obtusely keeled, larger upon the sinciput than on the occiput; canthus rostralis and supraciliary edges sharp ; two small separated spines or groups of spines above the ear present or absent ; diameter of the tympanum half or a little more than half that of the orbit; 10 to 13 upper and as many lower labials. Body feebly depressed; dorsal scales small, uniform, smooth or feebly keeled in the adult, strongly in the young, all pointing backwards and upwards ; dorsal crest reduced to a ridge of enlarged scales ; ventral scales as large as the dorsals, smooth (keeled in the young) ; from 115 to 150 scales round the middle of the body ; gular scales a little smaller than the ventrals ; 4 or 5 enlarged scales on the chin parallel with the anterior labials, separated from them by two rows of scales; a strong transverse fold covered with small scales across the throat; nuchal and dorsal crests a mere denticulation. Limbs strong, covered with uniform keeled scales; the hind-limb reaches to the ear or the posterior border of the orbit, sometimes a little farther in the young. Tail feebly compressed, covered with keeled scales which are larger below than above. In the adult male it is distinctly swollen at the base, the scales on that part of it thickened, those of the upper median row enlarged.

Young olive-brown, spotted, speckled or marbled with dark brown, and with a series of white elongated spots along each side of the back; this coloration more or less distinctly retained by the female. Male pale brownish on the top of the head and back ; lips yellowish-brown, the stripe-extending to beyond the ear : a dark brown or black lateral stripe commencing from behind (he eye and broadening to .over the whole of the lower half of the flank : yellowish below, the throat usually variegated with grey.

This species frequents bare rocks only, with which its colour matches. Feeds on insects. The male in the breeding season assumes bright colours. The upper parts become fine vermilion red or yellow, the lip-stripe sometimes pink. The under surfaces, limbs and tail are black.

From snout to vent 135 ; tail 200 mm. Females are smaller.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Iguania
Family: Agamidae
Genus: Psammophilus
Species: dorsalis
bahadir, Jamesp, ramthakur, boreocypriensis, Argus, xTauruSx, uleko, Maite, matatur, eqshannon, jaycee, Alex99, Royaldevon, nglen, pablominto, oscarromulus, loot, gracious, XOTAELE has marked this note useful
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Discussions
ThreadThread Starter Messages Updated
To matatur: Thank youharaprasan 1 04-27 07:27
To bahadir: Thank youharaprasan 1 04-27 07:27
To Jamesp: Thank youharaprasan 1 04-27 07:27
To ramthakur: Thank youharaprasan 1 04-27 07:27
To boreocypriensis: Thank youharaprasan 1 04-27 07:26
To PeterZ: Thank youharaprasan 1 04-27 07:26
To lousat: Thank youharaprasan 1 04-27 07:26
To montivipera: Thank youharaprasan 1 04-27 07:26
To Argus: Thank youharaprasan 1 04-27 07:26
To xTauruSx: Thank youharaprasan 1 04-27 07:26
To uleko: Thank youharaprasan 1 04-27 07:26
To Silvio2006: Thank youharaprasan 1 04-27 07:26
To Maite: Thank youharaprasan 1 04-27 07:26
To darwin: Thank youharaprasan 1 04-27 07:25
To bahadir: Thank youharaprasan 1 04-27 07:25
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Critiques [Translate]

Hello Haraprasan,
Wonderful capture of this agama species. The colours are wonderfull. I am sure that my supervisor, Prof. Bayram will like this. Congratulation on your 250th posting. TFS.
Regards,
Bahadır

Hi Haraprasan

Congratulations on your 250th posting. Great POV and pose and wothy dedications. I am looking forward to many more postings from you.

Best wishes

James

Congratulations on your 250th post, HP!
It is a major milestone in your very active presence on TN.
Wish you all the best for your next landmark stage!
The lizard you have captured for this occasion is quite an interesting species. I like its red and dark colours. Could it be the mating colouring?
TFS and all the best.
Ram

Hi My beloved Friend Haraprasan!
What a beautifull Agama species with stunning red colurs. Congratulation on your 250th posting my friend! and thanks for your kind dedication. Since I have not got enough information of the herptiles of India, tomorrow (When I go to University) I will searh its exact ID my friend.
Thanks once more!
Cheers,
Bayram

Hello Haraprasan,
Congratulations on your 250th posting. A beautiful Agama with great contrasting colours.
Regards,
Peter

Hi Hara,my best compliments for your 250th post,i hope to see a lot of your pic again!!Great point of view for this reptil,excellent colours and sharpenss,thanks for share,Luciano

Hi Haraprasan,
Congratulations for your 250th posting. What a beautiful Agamid with its nice colour.
Regards,
Nasit.

  • Great 
  • Argus Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2615 W: 133 N: 7512] (23431)
  • [2008-04-27 3:55]
  • [+]

Hello Haraprasan,
Congrats on your 250th!
You mark the occasion with a fine capture of a male Agamid lizard in breeding colours. Excellent use of flash to help with the colours, BG and sharpness and a fine composition.
Thanks for sharing this beauty and its nice of you to dedicate it to our TN friends Sumon and Bayram.
Best wishes,
Ivan

Hello Haraprasan,
Superb shot wonderfull agama and nice dedication. TFS.
Regards,
Deniz

  • Great 
  • uleko Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2470 W: 168 N: 7478] (23630)
  • [2008-04-27 4:41]
  • [+]

Hi Haraprasan,
Congratulations for reaching 250! You celebrate with a view of a fabulous and colourful lizard in a fine pose. Your flash worked well here as I bet it was well hidden.
Many thanks and regards, Ulla

  • Great 
  • Maite Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 982 W: 64 N: 1200] (4936)
  • [2008-04-27 6:40]
  • [+]

Hello Haraprasan
Congratulations on your 250th! What a rich gallery full of marvellous shots and interesting specimens captured. I like a lot the colors and pose of this curious lizard. Excellent POV, DOF and composition.
Thank you very much for sharing and go on with your magnificent job.
Greetings
Maite

Hi Haraprasan
Congratulations on 250 posts
Wonderful capture with lovely color
tfs jon

Hola my friend,
Congratulations on your 250th post, a fine agamid lizard by its looks, we will leave the exact IDing to Bayram, he will come up with something! Its contrasty colouring may indicate the midst of its mating season, or maybe it is its daily finery!...
Cheers,
Mehmet

I am not familiar with that lens, although I had 2 Tamrons...I didn't like them as much as my Nikons nor my Sigmas...but this one did it's job well enough...the orangish colour is what draws the eye in...sort of unusual at least to this eye....A lesson for A Sunday instead of Mass, alas we cannot attend due to my wife, but I have the "Church of Pictures" to attend!
Bob

  • Great 
  • jaycee Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 1791 W: 8 N: 4653] (15039)
  • [2008-04-27 7:56]

Hi Haraprasan,

Congratulations on your milestone. I look forward to your posts each day. Wonderful dedication to Sumon and Bayram. This Agama is just marvelous with those wonderful colors the red is amazing. Fine details of the eye and skin. Here's to the next 250!

Jane

  • Great 
  • Alex99 Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 3046 W: 148 N: 4553] (14701)
  • [2008-04-27 8:13]

Hi Haraprasan.
My hearty congratulation on 250th post and creation an amazing gallery here. I like the shot a lot. Its composition is superb as well as the wonderful image of the beautiful reptile and terrific BG. Bravo for all, dear friend.
Alexei.

Hello Haraprsan,

Congratulations on your 250th posting!
That is a superb achievement! I have no doubt that you will continue to thrill us with another 250 postings!

You have made this lizard blush! Perhaps he's not used to being photographed, or are they mating colours?


Lovely details and composition.

kind regards,
Bev :-)

  • Great 
  • nglen Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 1995 W: 5 N: 5588] (21102)
  • [2008-04-27 9:36]

Hi My friend, congratulations on 250 postings and this is a good one to do it with. and a nice dedication to are good friend. you have captured this reptile with good detail and rich colours. well done TFS.
Nick..

congrats on 250th picture. Nice colors. somewhere sharpness is missing. not your regular touch.

Hello Haraprasan,
Congrats on the 250! A fine achievement and a lot of work, hopefully some fun too...
You pick a fine image to mark the milestone, the colourful fellow is well captured and stands out proudly!
Greetings,
Pablo -

Hi Haraprasan,

Just marking today and be back later...

Pekka

How did you get so close to your subject???
Namastay.
You have reistered so much detail.
Congratulations, Haraprasan, on you 250th.
Warm greetings,
Mario.

  • Great 
  • loot Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 5726 W: 605 N: 3416] (9137)
  • [2008-04-27 15:39]

Hi Haraprasan

Congratulations on this great milestone you have reached. I hope there will still be many to follow. The dedication was also wisely chosen, especially to Bayram for his massive contribution towards the herpetological material on this site.

This is a very lovely red-headed lizard that seems to be some kind of Agama species, but we will have to wait and see what Bayram comes up with. I must say, that is quite an intense colour configuration this guy has to impress the ladies with. Almost something like my blue-headed Agama displayed. The exposure was good here and I just love the well removed BG as it compliments the subject very well.

Good work and TFS.
Regards
Loot

Hello my friend Prasan,
Many thanks for your wonderful works that sharing with us from the past and my heartiest congratulation on your 250th post! will see many more coming!
this is also a beautiful posting of reptile in a very impressive colour!
thank you once again
friend Tony

Rock Agama - Psamophilus dorsalis

Hi hara babu

We have found one in the recent trip to deras ,me and Sumon Da.Good take and a great DOF.Probably what you both have done to document the butterflies and insects are really incredible.
Thanks for sharing.Keep on documenting such rare things.
satya

  • Great 
  • gannu Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 929 W: 4 N: 2322] (10812)
  • [2008-04-28 2:50]

Hello HP, How did I miss. Perhaps may be due to goa trip. Excellent and god bless with more and more. Lovely focus and great view. Ganesh smiely tmrw

  • Great 
  • PaulH Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1033 W: 26 N: 3000] (10824)
  • [2008-04-28 3:36]

Hi Haraprasan,
great portrait of this striking looking Lizard, good detail and excellent DOF on th head, well done.
Paul

Hi HP, Congrats on 250 posts here on TN.
This a very good POV, and the lizard is striking in its color..
Great post,
Howard

Hello,
nice pov and beautiful colours, but the lizard's head is out of focus...
G's
Ilias

Hi Haraprasan, congratulations for your splendid 250th post on Tn, wonderful strange creature with beautiful colors and fine details, excellent sharpness, very well done, ciao Silvio

  • Great 
  • joey Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1697 W: 242 N: 5609] (19923)
  • [2008-04-29 13:56]

Wow! This is one stunning lizard!!
The colouring is incredible!
What a fine POV you have chosen.
Superb composition too.
Head is slightly OOF but everything else is spot-on!
Congratulations on your 250th post my friend!
Cheers Haraprasan!

Joe

  • Great 
  • Mana Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1714 W: 24 N: 4988] (16346)
  • [2008-04-30 8:40]

Hi Haraprasan,
CONGRATULATIONS on your reaching this huge milestone and all the best for many many more. You really have set a very high standard. This is a wonderful shot of this male Agama in breeding colours. They really look gorgeous and handsome. I will also post my capture sometime. Very skillful use of flash lighting and you have captured a fine pose. Excellent POV and composition. Kudos.
TFS.
Sumon

Hola amigo.
Me he perdido por diferentes motivos muchas de las imágenes que descubro de una manera u otra tiempo después de ser publicadas, como ésta.
Genial colorido en este extraño lagarto.
Bella presentación y comentario.
Saludos, Jl.

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