On the Blue Island, famous throughout the world for its enchanting Blue Grotto, there is also a small reptile with a characteristic blue-green color which on its even darker back takes on an intense cobalt blue hue: it is the blue lizard of Capri, the Podarcis siculus coeruleus formerly Lacerta coerulea faraglionensis, which is an endemic subspecies of the field lizard.
An animal that is found only in Capri, moreover in an extremely particular and circumscribed area like two of the Faraglioni symbols of the island: the one in the middle, known as Stella, and the one outside, the so-called Scopolo.
It is there, on the two limestone pinnacles whipped by the sea winds, that the lizards are born and spend their lives feeding on insects and some vegetables. It is precisely the adaptation to that very special "house" that has led them to develop the form of camouflage at the origin of their dark blue colour, also useful for attracting the sun's rays on which they rely to keep warm.
Far from peaceful, with the males engaging in violent fights, the blue lizards were discovered in 1872 by the herpetologist Theodor Eimer and mentioned in his Zoologische studien auf Capri, who made them known to the writer Norman Douglas, contributing to his decision to visit the island.
