Keeping and breeding of the painted agama - Laudakia stellio brachydactyla

Laudakia stellio subsp. brachydactyla (Haas, 1951) belongs to the “stellio” (rock agama) species complex, a group of medium-sized agamid lizards distributed across the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East. In older literature, it is usually treated as a subspecies of Laudakia stellio (Linnaeus, 1758), commonly referred to in English as the starred agama, rough-tailed rock agama or simply rock agama. Animals from the southern Levant and Sinai region, corresponding to “brachydactyla”, are often called the Levant rock agama or painted agama in the hobby, referring to their vivid breeding colours.