A small arboreal agamid lizard; head long and narrow, its length twice its breadth; snout obtusely pointed, distinctly longer than the orbit, narrowed and rather pointed; mental smaller than the rostral; nostril in a large scale, separated from the rostral by three scales, touching the second and third labials; upper head scales large, irregular, unequal, tubercular; five or six enlarged supra oculars; a tubule on the tip of the snout, two in front of the eyes, four on the occiput and others on the side of the head being distinct, these tubercles formed by bony prominences of the skull. Dorsal scales very large, unequal, irregularly disposed, smooth or shortly keeled, strongly imbricate, pointing backwards and downwards; ventral scales smaller, strongly keeled mucronate. Limbs above with large keeled scales; digits rather short, forth toe scarcely longer than third; the hind limb reaches to the axilla or not so far. Prehensile tail; tail rather short, feebly compressed, covered with keeled scales, those below being much narrower than those above. Nuchal crest of male composed of three or four lanceolate spines, the longest of which equals the length of the orbit; dorsal crest usually not continuous with the nuchal, composed similar spines separated from one another; crest of female much lower. A small gular sac is largest in the male; carinate, imbricate mid-gular scales, strongly carinate, acuminate chest scales, pointed ventral scales, unequal, very large, smooth or shortly keeled, strongly imbricate. SUP: 8-10, INF: 8-9, MBS: 33, MDS: 12-15; SVL: 60-61 mm; TAL: 79-85 mm; HL: 18 mm; AG: 30 mm (Deraniyagala, 1953; Moody, 1980; Smith, 1935; Taylor, 1953)

Dorsal color is mainly Olive green, with lighter and darker markings. A reddish brown or cream-colored stripe along the upper lip extending on to the shoulder always present; a light spot on the nape, a broad light stripe across the fore-part of the back and the body and one in front of the eyes frequently present; throat of male usually with a dark bands along each side of the lower jaw, and dark longitudinal lines in between; rest of lower parts whitish or light yellow; tail with alternating light and dark annuli.

Cophotis ceylanica, aslow moving arboreal lizard found on moss-covered tree trunksrecorded only from montane central hills above 1300 m. This species is endemic to Sri Lanka (Deraniyagala, 1957; Erdelen, 1989; Manamendra-Arachchi & Liyanage, 1994). Social interactions known include head bobbing, in response to threat as well as aggression between males (Das & De Silva, 2005).

This species is ovoviviparous (Smith, 1935). 4-5 young live young are produced at a time, measuring 47-50 mm, between May to August (Das & De Silva, 2005).

Conservation status: Endangered (Manamendra-Arachchi & Liyanage, 1994; Bahir & Surasinghe, 2005; IUCN, 2007).