Long nosed Ta-Ta Dragon Lophognathus longirostris (Boulenger, 1883)

The Nyangumarta aboriginals from the Pilbara call this lizard jartikarla.

A slender to medium sleek built arboreal dragon with a pointed shaped head. They vary in colouration from grey to, fawn and reddish brown.  On the dorsal lateral area, they have two lines which are cream or white in colour. From the loreal area there is a white band running towards the base of the head and just below the tympanum. All dorsal scales are keeled and the largest scales situated closer to the vertebra. The tail is quite long anPersonNamed makes up about two thirds of its total body length.

Ta-Ta's get this name because of the peculiar way they raise one of their limbs and wave it like they are waving goodbye. The reason that they do this, is likely just a territorial or mating display and it is usually accompanied with up and down head bobbing. This behaviour is not unique and is mimicked in a few species of Agamidae.

They are extremely agile runners and are very quick and hard to catch.
The tail on the Ta-Ta is very long and which make up about three quarters of its total body length. In suburban areas of the Pilbara, this dragon would be the most commonly encountered and nearly every back yard has a colony.
Habitat
Found in temperate sub-tropical to tropical areas and particularly habitat bordering river, creek beds and drainage systems.
They shelter inside shallow ground burrows that often have more than one entrance.

Food
They feed on a variety of insects like ants, insect larvae and low flying bugs, grasshoppers etc.

Breeding
Females can lay anything up to 15 eggs from about October to late summer.
Under favorable conditions, they can have several clutches in a single season.  

Comments
Not such a commonly kept species in Western Australia, this maybe more the case that they haven't been widely collected for the pet trade as of yet. Wild collected specimens do not seem to do very well in small enclosures and suffer stress easily and therefore only captive raised specimens should be considered.

All native reptiles in W.A remain protected under the W.A Wildlife Conservation Act (1950)
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