Asimblepharus alaiensis - Alai Asimblepharus

Asymblepharus alaicus - Alai Asymblepharus

A small lizard: body length up to 6.5 cm, weight up to 3.8 g. Females are larger than males. The body is stocky, with a small head that tapers towards the front, thick limbs, and a tail. The body is covered with small, uniform, and shiny scales.

Separate eyelids are absent. The eye is covered by a motionless transparent membrane. It is surrounded by granular scales, olive-colored on top with brown and green hues. There are 4 rows of longitudinal interrupted whitish stripes on the back and tail. Brown stripes, bordered above and below by narrow light lines, run from the nostrils along the sides of the head and body. The underside of the body is grayish, and during the breeding season, males turn orange.

The Alai Asymblepharus is found in the Tian Shan mountains and the adjacent foothill plains within Tajikistan, throughout Kyrgyzstan, northeastern Uzbekistan, and southeastern Kazakhstan up to the Junggar Alatau in the north.

It inhabits the slopes of mountains covered with lush steppe-type vegetation, in subalpine and alpine meadows, on clearings and lawns amidst juniper and spruce forests, along the shores of high-altitude lakes in river valleys, and in areas with semi-desert vegetation in the foothills. In the mountains, it is commonly found in rocky outcrops and stony debris, where it is particularly numerous. In Kyrgyzstan, the population density reaches 0.23-2.0 individuals per 1 km of route in some areas. Its shelters include voids under stones, crevices in bedrock and plowed soil layers, as well as tree hollows and rodent burrows. It easily climbs the trunks of trees and shrubs.

It can swim across ditches and small streams. After hibernation, it appears from late March to late April.

The Alai Asymblepharus feeds on insects, predominantly beetles (42 to 82% occurrence), ants (37-54%), dipterans (up to 22%), bugs (up to 25%), orthopterans (9-15%), butterflies (up to 20%), leafhoppers (12-15%), and caterpillars (7-9%). In small quantities (6-20%), it consumes spiders, and occasionally small mollusks.

The Alai Asymblepharus is the only viviparous species of the genus. Mating in Kyrgyzstan occurs from May to early July. In each oviduct, 1-3 embryos develop. Young individuals, measuring up to 40 mm in length (about half of which is tail), are born in the second half of July to mid-August. In Kazakhstan, mass births of young were observed in mid-June. In the Central Tian Shan, sexual maturity is reached in the second year of life at a body length (excluding the head) of at least 40 mm in females and 43 mm in males. In the Pamirs and the Alai Valley (at an altitude of 3000-3500 m), females reach sexual maturity at the age of 2 years upon reaching a length of 55 mm.

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