Painted-lip Lizard

The painted-lip lizard, or Ceylon bloodsucker, is a colourful arboreal agamid endemic to Sri Lanka. It lives in monsoon forests, plantations and home gardens of the dry and intermediate zones, up to about 400 m, with records from Minneriya, Sigiriya, Kumana and Puttalam. The body is compressed, the cheeks swollen and the tail slender, over twice the head-body length. Dark brown above with indistinct crossbands, it has a bright red or reddish-orange stripe on the upper lip, which turns white, like the crest, when it is stressed. Adult males have a black throat (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is active by day on tree trunks and eats insects and other arthropods. Nationally Near Threatened (Sri Lanka National Red List 2012).