YES! I solved it! Everyone here probably knows already that I love doing species IDs. However, my biggest challenge ever was one of my own lizards. Chaun, my mystery reptile, was purchased last winter as a "chinese dragon". I knew when I first saw him that he would be a real challenge to ID, because I could tell that the common name was one invented by the pet industry, and because I had never heard of them or seen one before.

My first instinct was that he was quite obviously an agamid of some sort. Whoop-di-doo, that doesn't get me very far. After that I tried narrowing down his genus. My God, that took me MONTHS. There were a ton that he looked like he could belong to, but I eventually narrowed it down to Gonocephalus, Acanthosaura, or Calotes. Unfortunately, that just led me down the wrong path, because he's found in a genus I had never heard of before.

When I first got him I did a Google search on "chinese dragon" and of course got nothing useful (as expected). From there my only option was to search various genuses I suspected he may belong to. My only lead came from Calotes, but I suspected it to be false, cause he just didn't quite fit the bill for one. Finally, tonight, after 4 months of reasearching, I find the pics I've been looking for. Chaun is a Japalura splendida, commonly known in the pet industry as a chinese tree dragon.

So, without further adu (or however you spell it), here's the only pics of Chaun I have at the moment. For more views of the species, do a Google search on "Japalura splendida".

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+5 bonus points to whoever finds me a job!

"Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines." - John Benfield

Congrats Matt, glad your searching is over. He is a cute.

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MARSHA
A man without a woman is a bachelor, A woman without a man is a genius!.

We have enough youth, how about a fountain of smart!

Congratulations for your long search ending. You are very smart when it comes to these retiles. I wish I knew as much, I'm a bit stupid when it comes to these things LOL.

AHA.....I could have helped you with that one....glad you figured it out.

We had a couple of venders that had some of them at the last herp show. Who actually called them by their correct name. I nearly bought a pair.

lol, oh well. Fortunately I was pretty much right on the nose in assuming his care requirements when I bought him, since the pet store didn't know and I had no idea what species he is. He was housed with a female at the store, but I had no interest in breeding them or spending the money on a second one.

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+5 bonus points to whoever finds me a job!

"Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines." - John Benfield

Congratulations Matt!! Boy when you get an ID problem, you really go after it like a pit bull!
Glad you figured it out!

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Andrea

BlackJack, no disrespect here, but I'd appreciate if you not make it sound like all pit bulls are evil. But I do understand what you mean by it. Thank you.

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~Jason Richardson

nice job furry, marsha and I know a guy named nick that sells these guys. Pretty neat little lizards, not much space needed for them to thrive either.

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-Adam

"Help Protect our Planet from Overcollection, Purchase Aquacultured Livestock and Captive Bred Herps"

Nothing was said about Pits being evil. She meant that they are tenacious.
Sort of like Matt when it comes to ID's!
Hmmm,.... Matt the ID-meister! LOL!

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

lol, I like the sound of that

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+5 bonus points to whoever finds me a job!

"Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines." - John Benfield