be free of any pattern. There are usually 2–3 prolonged red surrounded by blue areas on the neck. Color of these areas serves as a "pregnancy indicator". In gravid females red coloration turns bluish-grey and areas become blue. Belly is white with bright orange wash in the rare (abdominal) part. Tail usually carries latitudinally striped pattern form dark and white segments. Ventral surface of the tail in lizards from Armenia is dark grey in males and yellowish in females. Distribution and habitat The species occurs in fragmented populations in the northwestern and western parts of the Central Plateau in Iran. Reports from Azerbaijan have not been confirmed in the past 50 years. The species inhabits semi-desert on plateaus at an elevation of up to 1,150m. Ecology The life span of P. persicus is 2.5–3 years. Juveniles become adults at an age of less than one year. The species feeds on a variety of arthropods including ants, small spiders, beetles and orthopterans and even venomous arthropods such as spiders, bees and wasps. P. persicus is oviparous, i.e. a female lays eggs to reproduce. Females may make 1–3 clutches of 2–4 small eggs, depending on the duration of the warm season, which, in its turn, heavily depends on elevation of the local terrain. The female lays the eggs into a narrow around 30 cm deep burrow she has dug into the sand. During the period of gravidity, females demonstrate a specifically aggressive behavior towards conspecifics and other invaders as well. This behavior includes walking on extended rear limbs with an inflated abdomen, collateral rotations of the curved end of the tail, tail-markings on the sand, and open mouth attacks. Conservation The species is fairly common in suitable habitat but patchily distributed. It is currently classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN. Its geographic range does overlap with areas of intense land use, making large scale habitat loss a major threat. Overgrazing, uncontrolled collection, road mortality as well as predation by larger animals have been documented. Habitats of the lizard are preserved as small islets of semi-desert surrounded by agrarian lands. Despite positive experience in captive breeding of P. horvathi, no stable captive colonies exist. References Further reading persicus Reptiles of Azerbaijan Reptiles described in 1863 Taxa named by Filippo De Filippi