Desert night lizard

Xantusia vigilis

TAXONOMY

Xantusia vigilis Baird, 1858, Fort Tejon, California, United States.

OTHER COMMON NAMES

English: Yucca night lizard; French: Xantusie du désert; German: Yucca-Nachtechse; Spanish: Lagartija nocturna del desierto.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

The desert night lizard is small (maximum snout-vent length, 1.5 in [3.7 cm]) and has vertically elliptical pupils lacking eyelids. The lizard is covered with small, granular dorsal scales and 12 longitudinal rows of ventral scales. The body usually is brown with small dark spots.

DISTRIBUTION

North America, spotty in southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico.

HABITAT

The desert night lizard inhabits desert and chaparral. It is common in decaying yucca logs or dead agaves. The species was considered rare until the discovery of its close association with these plants.

BEHAVIOR

The desert night lizard is rarely found outside cover.

FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET

The desert night lizard is insectivorous, feeding primarily on ants and beetles within the confines of yucca logs and agaves.

REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY

In the Mohave Desert, copulation takes place in May and early June. Gestation is approximately 90 days. One to three young (average, 1.9) are born in September and early October. During dry years there may be no reproduction.

CONSERVATION STATUS

Not threatened. Despite the low reproductive rate, populations are quite dense (approximately 12,000 per square mile [4,000 per square kilometer]) in favorable habitat in the Mohave Desert, but extensive areas in the western part of the range have been cleared for housing.

SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS

None known.

Desert night lizard
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Reptilia Order: Squamata Family: Xantusiidae Genus: Xantusia Species: X. vigilis
Binomial name
Xantusia vigilis Baird, 1859

The Desert Night Lizard Xantusia vigilis is a night lizard native to southern California east of the Sierras and San Gabriel Mountains into Baja California, southern Nevada, sw Utah and extreme western Arizona.

Like all night lizards, the desert night lizard is viviparous, giving birth to live young and producing 1 to 3 young from August to December. The night lizard is 1 1/2 to 2 3/4 inches long with a tail roughly the same length. The lizard's coloring is usually gray, yellow-brownish or olive. Despite their name, night lizards are active during the day. They are known to easily to change their color, from light olive (usually during the evening) to dark drown during the day. It is a good climber and usually eats termites, small insects, spiders and other arthropods.

It is a secretive lizard of arid and semi-arid locales. During the day it may be found under fallen debris of desert plants and in rock crevices. It is usually associated with varieties of yucca such as the Joshua Tree, Spanish Dagger, and Spanish Bayonet.

The Yucca Night Lizard, Xanthusia vigilis vigilis, is a subspecies.

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