Guadeloupe Ameiva

The Guadeloupe - Ameive ( Ameiva cineracea ) is a presumably extinct lizard of the family of rail lizards. Although Jean -Baptiste Du Tertre was already mentioned in 1667 Ameiven on Guadeloupe, the first valid scientific description was written on the basis of three specimens ( one male, two females ) only in 1915, which in August 1914 in Petit -Bourg on the island Basse -Terre were collected.

Features

According to Du Tertre the Ameiven were 1 to 1.5 feet long. 1914, caught male has a snout-vent length of 150 mm. The back and tail scales are keeled and straight. 18 to 20 ventral scales in a transverse row and 34 to 38 ventral scales are arranged in a longitudinal row. On each foot are four toes. Among the toes 74 to 78 scales can be seen. There are 56 to 63 Femoralporen available. The back is ash-gray to gray- green and shows three slightly darker, inconspicuous, elongated strips. At each edge two lateral stripes are indicated. The flanks are bluish. The head and tail are olive-green. The belly is straw colored or milky white.

Way of life

The few records of the life come from the factory l' Histoire générale des Antilles habitees par les Français Du Tertre ( 1667). The animals spent the days heat under the floor. They ate both of vegetable and animal diet of

Extinction

The majority of the population is believed to have been decimated by mongooses. The main reason for the extinction but was apparently the Okeechobee hurricane, which devastated the island of Guadeloupe in September 1928.