Princely mastigures are of the ‘Uromastyx’ genus of the ‘Agamid’ family. Unlikely, these are more popularly known by their binomial name, ‘Uromastyx Princeps’. Lizards of Uromastyx genus are a great pet and so are very popular in the pet trade. The Uromastyx genus is differentiated by other genera by the characteristic of thick spiked tail that all the lizards of Uromastyx genus have. In fact, the word ‘uromastyx’ was derived from the Greek words ‘oura’ and ‘mastigo’ which mean ‘tail’ and ‘scourge’ respectively. The other species of Uromastyx include Uromastyx Hardwickii (found in India, will blog about this soon!), Uromastyx Thomasi, Uromastyx Ornata, Uromastyx Oscellata, etc. The lizards of Uromastyx genus are commonly known as dab lizards or spiny-tailed lizards.
Coming to our Princeps, they are naturally found in Somalia, in the provinces of Sanaag, Bari, Mudug and Nogal to be precise. However, some get exported to other countries for the purpose of trade.
Princely mastigures feed on vegetables and fruits. These lizards can grow up to a maximum length of 7 inches with the maximum length its tail can grow being 3 inches. These are colorful little creatures having ground color of the body as olive gray to green. The male lizards have yellowish red to green colored back with small black spots and are yellowish underside. The female lizards are grey brown colored at the back with small black spots and are white colored underside.
Princely Mastigures are really rare which could be understood by the fact that they can be bought at the price of around $2000! Perhaps, one of the factors for their scarcity is that they happen to reproduce well in their natural land Somalia and comparatively less in other places.
Lizard Talk 