A lizard we saw Zambia that I had forgotten about: Johnston’s Long-tailed Lizard

Latastia johnstoni
South Luangwa, Zambia, October 2007
still from video

One morning nearly thirteen years ago while walking beside a dry river bed in the South Luangwa Valley of Zambia we spotted a lizard with a very long and very bright red tail. I took some video noting in my mind to look up what it was. The local guides, brilliant on birds and mammals, called it a ‘skink’ but I suspected it was one of the African members of the Lacertidae, that family of lizards represented so strongly in Europe including two species in Britain.

During covid-lockdown we looked at some old videos and I realised that I never had never identified our lizard. After a bit of searching I found it was Latastia johnstoni, Johnston’s Long-tailed Lizard found in Tanzania, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe as well as in Malawi. Another common name is Malawi or Nyasaland Long-tailed Lizard. It is, as I strongly suspected, a lacertid.

I read that the bright red tail, rear of the back and legs is characteristic of juveniles and that the colour dulls down with age.

The ten currently recognised species of Latastia, apart from one species also found in Yemen, occur only in Africa. L. johnstoni was described in 1907 by George Albert Boulenger from two specimens collected in what is now Malawi by Sir Harry Johnston—yes, the man who discovered the Okapi—in 1897.

Boulenger GA. 1907. Descriptions of two new African lizards of the genus Latastia. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Zoology, Botany and Geology 19, 392-394.