Podarcis facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Podarcis |
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| Male phenotypes of six wall lizard species: P. siculus (top left), P. filfolensis (top right), P. erhardii (middle left), P. tauricus (middle right), P. waglerianus (bottom left) and P. muralis (bottom right). | |
Scientific classification  |
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Family: | Lacertidae |
| Genus: | Podarcis Wagler, 1830 |
Podarcis is a group of small lizards often called wall lizards. They belong to the family Lacertidae. These lizards look very much like another group of lizards called Lacerta. In fact, scientists thought they were the same until the 1970s!
Even though they look similar and live in similar places, Podarcis lizards are a unique group. They have different bone structures in their skulls and other internal features. They also have special parts in their tail bones. Wall lizards originally come from Europe and northern Africa. Most species live around the Mediterranean Sea. These lizards developed into many different types during a period of big changes in the Mediterranean Sea.
Some wall lizards, like the Italian wall lizard and the common wall lizard, have been brought to North America. There, they can sometimes carry tiny worms.
Discovering Different Wall Lizard Species
The Podarcis group includes 27 different species that scientists recognize today. A species is a group of animals that can have babies together. Sometimes, within a species, there are slightly different groups called subspecies. Here are some of the many recognized species and a few subspecies:
- Bocage's wall lizard, Podarcis bocagei (Seoane, 1885)
- Carbonell's wall lizard, Podarcis carbonelli Pérez Mellado, 1981
- Cretan wall lizard, Podarcis cretensis (Wettstein, 1952)
- Erhard's wall lizard, Podarcis erhardii (Bedriaga, 1882)
- Maltese wall lizard, Podarcis filfolensis (Bedriaga, 1876)
- Skyros wall lizard, Podarcis gaigeae (F. Werner, 1930)
- Podarcis galerai Bassitta, Buades, Pérez‐Cembranos, Pérez‐Mellado, Terrasa, Brown, Navarro, Lluch, Ortega, Castro, Picornell, & Ramon, 2020
- Podarcis guadarramae (Boscá, 1916)
- Iberian wall lizard, Podarcis hispanicus (Steindachner, 1870)
- Crimean wall lizard, Podarcis ionicus (Lehrs, 1902)
- Pontian wall lizard, Podarcis latastei (Bedriaga, 1879)
- Podarcis levendis Lymberakis, Poulakakis, Kaliontzopoulou, Valakos & Mylonas, 2008
- Lilford's wall lizard, Podarcis lilfordi (Günther, 1874)
- Ratas Island lizard, Podarcis lilfordi rodriquezi (L. Müller, 1927), sadly became extinct in 1950.
- Catalan wall lizard, Podarcis liolepis (Boulenger, 1905)
- Podarcis lusitanicus (Geniez, Sa-Sousa, Guilliaume, Cluchier, & Crochet, 2014)
- Dalmatian wall lizard, Podarcis melisellensis (Braun, 1877)
- Milos wall lizard, Podarcis milensis (Bedriaga, 1882)
- Common or European wall lizard, Podarcis muralis (Laurenti, 1768)
- Peloponnese wall lizard, Podarcis peloponnesiacus (Bibron & Bory de Saint-Vincent, 1833)
- Ibiza wall lizard, Podarcis pityusensis (Boscá, 1883)
- Aeolian wall lizard, Podarcis raffonei (Mertens, 1952)
- Italian wall lizard, Podarcis siculus (Rafinesque, 1810)
- Santo Stefano lizard, Podarcis siculus sanctistephani (Mertens, 1926), sadly became extinct in 1965.
- Balkan wall lizard, Podarcis tauricus (Pallas, 1814)
- Tyrrhenian wall lizard, Podarcis tiliguerta (Gmelin, 1789)
- Andalusian wall lizard, Podarcis vaucheri (Boulenger, 1905)
- Podarcis virescens Geniez, Sá-Sousa, Guillaume, Cluchier & Crochet, 2014
- Sicilian wall lizard, Podarcis waglerianus (Gistel, 1868)
Nota bene: When you see a name in parentheses like (Smith, 1900), it means that this species or subspecies was first described under a different group name. Later, scientists moved it to the Podarcis group.
