All Angles Creatures
Squamata · AgamidaeEntry 6,840 of 21,572

Reptilia · Squamata

Diporiphora paraconvergensDoughty, Kealley, Melville, 2012

Grey-striped Western Desert Dragon

No photograph of this species exists under a license anyone may reuse. It gets the same page regardless.

A day-active, omnivorous lizard from the Australo-Pacific region, reaching 60 mm snout to vent.

ReptiliaSquamataAgamidaeDiporiphora

Grows to
60mm
greatest recorded
Eats
Omnivorous
Active
Diurnal
Lives
Arboreal, terrestrial
Body length across Agamidae

Longer than only 14% of all agamids anyone has measured.

14% of 583 species are smaller86% larger
32 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest418 mm

The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because body length here runs from 32 to 418 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.

What is known

35 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.

Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.

Standing in the world

Still living
Extant
Conservation status
Least Concern
Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
2017

The animal itself

Limbs
Four legs
Venomous
No
Fangs
None
Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
33.85°C93 °F

mean body temperature of active individuals in nature

Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
33.7–34°C93–93 °F

body temperature of active animals in nature

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
60mm2.25 in

max 60 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)

Length snout to vent · adult female mean
56.5mm2.25 in
Largest female · snout to vent
56.5mm2.25 in

snout-vent length; the source column mixes this with straight carapace length

Hatchling length · snout to vent
31.5mm1.25 in
Largest juvenile · snout to vent
31.5mm1.25 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed
6.84g0.24 oz

computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed

How it lives

Diet
Omnivorous

insects, leaves and flowers (Pianka 2013: 29% plant material)

How it hunts
Sit and wait

Pianka 2013

Active
Diurnal

e.g., Pianka et al. 2017

Where it lives
Arboreal, terrestrial

primarily arboreal (Doughty et al. 2012) but frequently forages on the fround (Pianka 2013), semiarboreal (Melville and Wilson 2019)

Habitat
Desert, Grassland, Savanna, Shrubland
Biome
Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
Region
Australo-Pacific
Mainland or island
Mainland
Range size
852,650km²

Breeding

Reproduction
Oviparous
Average clutch
3eggs
Eggs or young per clutch
3eggs

average 3 (Pianka 2013)

Mean clutch
3eggs
Clutches a year
1–2per year

Naming and history

Suborder
Sauria
Infraorder
Acrodontia
Subspecies
No
Described by
Doughty, Kealley, Melville
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
No
Described in
2012
Type locality
Australia

Keeping one

9.5 in × 9.5 in × 9.5 in(24 × 24 × 24 cm)

Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.

The standard sizes ground species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 and climbing species at 4 × 2.5 × 4 times snout-vent length.

Recorded both on the ground and climbing, so this is the larger of the two rules in every dimension.

Mindestanforderungen an die Haltung von Reptilien (Sachverständigengutachten), German Federal Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry, Animal Welfare Division, 10 January 1997. The standard states these floor areas are recommendations rather than binding limits.

From this animal’s own snout-vent length of 2.25 in (60 mm), at 4 × 4 × 4 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.

Active animals measured in the wild averaged 93 °F (33.9 °C).

Mean body temperature of active individuals measured in nature. A measurement of the animal, not a setting for a thermostat.

Feeding

A prey item should be no wider than the space between the animal's eyes.

Widely used across reptile husbandry references. The stated reason is that the gap approximates the width of the throat, so wider prey is associated with impaction. This is established practice, not a measurement.

1kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 7 g, the heaviest recorded for Grey-striped Western Desert Dragon — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.

An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.

What nobody knows

These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.

  • Length snout to vent · adult male mean
  • Length snout to vent · adult mean
  • Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
  • Female length · mean, nose to tail
  • Length nose to tail · adult male mean
  • Length nose to tail · adult mean
  • Largest male · snout to vent
  • Largest female · shell length
  • Largest male · shell length
  • Hatchling length · nose to tail
  • Largest juvenile · shell length
  • Egg length
  • Egg width
  • Body mass · a typical adult
  • Body mass · adult female, mean
  • Body mass at hatching
  • Longest recorded life
  • Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
  • Eats arthropods
  • Eats vertebrates
  • Eats plant matter
  • How the young develop
  • Gestation or incubation
  • Clutches in a year
  • First breeds from · youngest recorded
  • First breeds by · oldest recorded
  • Hatchling length · smallest recorded
  • Hatchling length · largest recorded
  • Age at first breeding · female
  • Mature from · youngest recorded
  • Mature by · oldest recorded
  • Size at maturity · smallest recorded
  • Size at maturity · largest recorded
  • Colour on the back
  • Pattern on the back
  • Pupil
  • Sex decided by
  • Population trend
  • Red List criteria
  • Active season · shortest recorded
  • Active season · longest recorded
  • Density · lowest recorded
  • Density · highest recorded
  • Home range · largest recorded
  • Active in
  • Lowest it lives · above sea level
  • Highest it lives · above sea level

Others in Agamidae

Take this data

Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.

This species as JSON · the whole dataset

Cite this page

The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Diporiphora paraconvergens. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/diporiphora-paraconvergens

@misc{diporiphora_paraconvergens_2026,
  title  = {Diporiphora paraconvergens},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/diporiphora-paraconvergens}
}

Sources

  1. Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
  2. Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
  3. Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.