The Japanese Five Lined Skink is not a dragon; in reality, it is a very charismatic little lizard. Five bright bands of yellow on black start at the snout and just at the start of the tail, change to a brilliant blue!
They are very quick and easily startled. In my experience, I often hear them racing away among the dry leaves on the forest floor rather than see them. However, on this day fortune smiled! I heard a rustling on the ground as I was looking for macro subjects in a tree.
I spotted a flash of bright blue and decided to wait while mosquitoes drank my blood. I slowly crouched near the little lizard and was able to get quite close!
I love its perfect little dragon's claws in this frame!
As this post would have been quite sparse with only two pictures, I did a bit of diving into the archives:
These were originally posted to my old blogspot blog. I still update it every now and then though with Steemit, that will likely taper off. You can enjoy my old(er) posts at In Front of the SLR!
Japanese Grass Lizard:
Managed a quick shot of this one as it paused before running off into the surrounding vines.
A little more information at Wikipedia if you can read Japanese, that page has a good deal more information.
Geckos are also fairly common, though it's a bit awkward to try to photograph them on someone's house as they hunt moths and the like near lamps. "Why yes officer, I was taking pictures of little geckos...."
As such this one I found early in the morning:
She appears rather chubby for a lizard that can hang from the ceiling effortlessly. This gecko is nearly about to lay a clutch of eggs! Probably slowed her down enough that freezing in place was the best option. I was able to get one more shot of the expectant lizard before she scampered down the wall and into a crack between some bricks.
This page was helpful for identifying the exact species. Insects.jp
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Little Monsters - Part I: Wolf Spiders
Little Monsters - Part II: Golden Orb Weaver
Little Monsters - Part III: Lynx Spiders!
Little Monsters - Part IV: Decorator Orb Weaver
Little Monsters - Part V: Black Back Paper Wasp
Little Monsters - Part VI: Dragonfly
Little Monsters - Part VII: Indian Fritallary
Little Monsters - Part VIII: Giant Japanese Hornet
Little Monsters - Part IX: Praying Mantis!
Little Monsters - Part X: Harlequin Ladybird!
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