Liolaemus fabiani, commonly known as Fabian's lizard, Yanez's tree iguana, and lagartija de Fabián in Spanish, is a species of lizard in the family Liolaemidae.Liolaemus fabiani Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology. It is native to Chile.
Etymology The specific name, fabiani, is in honor of Chilean ecologist Fabián Jaksic.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (Liolaemus fabiani, p. 88).
Geographic range L. fabiani is endemic to the Salar de Atacama, the Atacama salt flat, in northern Chile.Escobar, Claudio M. et al. (2003). "Chemical Composition of Precloacal Secretions of Two Liolaemus fabiani Populations: Are They Different?". Journal of Chemical Ecology 29 (3): 629.
The species was first described by José L. Yáñez and Herman Núñez in 1983, from a sample collected at a high elevation, , near San Pedro de Atacama in Llano de Vilama in September 1981 by the Chilean National Museum of Natural History.Yáñez, José L.; Núñez, Herman (1983)."Liolaemus fabiani, a New Species of Lizard from Northern Chile (Reptilia: Iguanidae)". Copeia 1983 (3): 788-790.
Habitat The preferred natural habitat of L. fabiani is hot desert, at altitudes of , where it is found near water, and has been observed swimming in search of prey.
Description Principle diagnostic features of L. fabiani are: "subtriangular head with temporal and occipital regions more prominent than in other species of the genus; dorsal humeral scales smooth and triangular; color pattern ornamented with red and black spots."
Diet L. fabiani preys upon mosquitoes and other insects.
Reproduction L. fabiani is viviparous. www.reptile-database.org.
References
Further reading Núñez H, Yáñez J (1984). "Abas y Velosaura nuevos géneros de lagartos iguanidae y proposiciones sistemáticas respecto de los géneros aliados (Reptilia Squamata) ". Boletín del Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, Santiago de Chile 40: 91–95. (Abas fabiani, new combination). (in Spanish). Ramírez-Leyton G, Pincheira-Donoso D (2005). Fauna del Altiplano y Desierto Atacama: Vertebrados de la Provincia de El Loa. Santiago de Chile: Phrynosaura Ediciones. 395 pp. (in Spanish).
External links
Photograph of L. fabiani.