Range in California: Green
Click the map for a guide
to the other subspecies
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Adult male, Inyo County |
Adult female, Inyo County |
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Adult female, Inyo County |
Adult, Inyo County |
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Adult female, Inyo County |
Adult, Inyo County |
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Adult female, Inyo County |
Adult female, Inyo County |
Adult, Inyo County |
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Adult female, Inyo County
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Habitat |
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Habitat, Inyo County |
Habitat, Inyo County |
Habitat, Inyo County |
| Description |
| Size |
3 1/4 - 5 3/5 inches long from snout to vent (8.2 - 14.2 cm). (Stebbins 2003)
The largest of the Sceloporus species in California. |
| Appearance |
A robust, stocky lizard with large pointed keeled scales and a black wedge marked on the rear with pale coloring on the sides of the neck. 5 - 7 conspicuous pointed scales cover the ear. The tail detaches easily, but it will regenerate.
Color is light tan, yellowish, or brownish above with 6 - 7 dark bars across the back, edged on the rear with yellow.
Males have enlarged postanal scales and femoral pores, a swollen tail base, and a bluish patch on the throat and on the sides of the belly with black on the edges. Males also have a dark purple to blackish band with light borders down the center of the back.
Females are pale in color underneath with little or no blue. The head of a female may be orange or reddish in the breeding season. |
| Behavior & Natural History |
| Diurnal. Active generally from April through October, taking shelter during periods of excessive heat and cold. A good climber, often seen on rocks, trees and walls, as well as on the ground. Shelters under rocks, logs and other surface objects, and in cracks, burrows, and woodrat nests. Very wary. Escapes by running away quickly into brush, rocks, or burrows. Males stand tall and extend the throat to expose the blue coloring in order to announce claim their territory. |
| Diet |
| Eats a variety of small invertebrates and their larvae including ants, beetles, grasshoppers, spiders, centipedes, and caterpillars, and occasionally small lizards, leaves, flowers and berries. |
| Reproduction |
| Breeds in spring and early summer, generally May and June. A clutch of 4 - 19 eggs are laid between May and August. Young are typically seen in August and September. Females may lay more than one clutch during favorable years. |
| Range |
| Found from the mid Owens Valley north and east into extreme west-central Nevada. From near sea level to around 5,000 ft. (1,520 m). (Stebbins 2003) |
| Habitat |
| Inhabits desert flats, semiarid plains, low mountain slopes, riparian woods, including areas grown with, creosote bush, mesquite, yucca, and grasses. |
| Taxonomic Notes |
Sceloporus magister taxonomy has been very confusing recently (as of May, 2009). As things stand, Sceloporus magister in California represents either one species, possibly with two subspecies, or two full species, the distribution of which does not follow the distribution of the long-accepted subspecies.
In 1996, Grismer & McGuire (1996 Herpetologica 52(3): 416-427) recommended that no subspecies of S. magister should be recognized.
In 2006, Schulte, Macey, and Papenfuss split S. magister into three species - S. magister, S. uniformis, and S. bimaculosus, with two subspecies of S. magister - S. m. magister, and S. m. cephaloflavus. 1
If this analysis is accepted, in California, S. m. uniformis from the southern Sonoran Deserts becomes S. m. magister - Purple-backed Spiny Lizard, and S. m. uniformis from the Mojave Desert, the Central Valley, the Coast Ranges, and the Great Basin Desert (including Nevada) which includes the former subspecies S. m. transversus, become S. uniformis - Yellow-backed Spiny Lizard. However, their sample size was very small which makes it difficult to determine the ranges of these new species in California. Click this link to see an approximate map of the ranges of S. uniformis and S. m. magister.
In 2007, Leache and Mulcahy concluded that "S. magister appears to represent a single geographically variable and widespread species." 2
In 2008, the S.S.A.R., whose list this web site follows, adopted the 3 species taxonomy of Schulte et al in the sixth edition of their Scientific and Standard English Names of Amphibians and Reptiles of North America north of Mexico list.
I have decided to note this nomenclature, but wait to see if it is widely accepted before I use it on this web site.
In 2009, Collins & Taggart submitted the 2006 3 species proposal by Schulte, Macey, and Papenfuss to a lizard systematist group which disagreed, leaving them to continue to recognize one species - S. magister - Desert Spiny Lizard.
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| Conservation Issues (Conservation Status) |
| None. |
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Taxonomy |
| Family |
Phrynosomatidae |
Zebra-tailed, Earless, Fringe-toed, Spiny, Tree, Side-blotched, and Horned Lizards |
| Genus |
Sceloporus |
Spiny Lizards |
| Species |
magister |
Desert Spiny Lizard |
Subspecies
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transversus |
Barred Spiny Lizard |
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Original Description |
Sceloporus magister - Hallowell, 1854 - Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Vol. 7, p. 93 Z
Sceloporus magister transversus - Phelan and Brattstrom, 1955 - Herpetologica, Vol. 11, p. 10
from Original Description Citations for the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America © Ellin Beltz
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Meaning of the Scientific Name |
Sceloporus - Greek -skelos leg and porus - pore or opening - refers to the femoral pores on hind legs
magister - Latin - teacher or master - probably refers to the large size
transversus - Latin -trans across and versus - turned or changed - refers to the dorsal cross bars
from Scientific and Common Names of the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America - Explained © Ellin Beltz
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Alternate Names |
Sceloporus magister - Desert Spiny Lizard (no subspecies recognized)
Sceloporus uniformis - Yellow-backed Spiny Lizard
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Related or Similar Neighboring California Lizards |
Sceloporus magister uniformis - Yellow-backed Spiny Lizard
Sceloporus occidentalis longipes - Great Basin Fence Lizard
Sceloporus graciosus graciosus - Northern Sagebrush Lizard
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More Information and References |
Natureserve Explorer
California Dept. of Fish and Game
Stebbins, Robert C. A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians. 3rd Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003.
Behler, John L., & F. Wayne King. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians. Alfred A. Knopf, 1992.
Bartlett, R. D. & Patricia P. Bartlett. Guide and Reference to the Turtles and Lizards of Western North America (North of Mexico) and Hawaii. University Press of Florida, 2009.
Jones, Lawrence, Rob Lovich, editors. Lizards of the American Southwest: A Photographic Field Guide. Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2009.
Smith, Hobart M. Handbook of Lizards, Lizards of the United States and of Canada. Cornell University Press, 1946.
Macey, J. Robert and Theodore Papenfuss."Herpetology." The Natural History of the White-Inyo Range Eastern California. Ed. Clarence Hall. University of California Press, 1991.
1 A genetic perspective on the geographic association of taxa among arid North American lizards of the Sceloporus magister complex (Squamata: Iguanidae: Phrynosomatinae)
James A. Schulte II, J. Robert Macey & Theodore J. Papenfuss 2006.
Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 39: 873-880
2 Phylogeny, divergence times and species limits of spiny lizards (Sceloporus magister species group) in western North American deserts and Baja California
ADAM D. LEACHE and DANIEL G. MULCAHY
Molecular Ecology (2007) doi: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2007.03556.x
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The following status listings come from the Special Animals List which is published several times each year by the California Department of Fish and Game.
This animal is not included on the Special Animals List, which indicates that there are no significant conservation concerns for it in California.
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Organization
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Status Listing
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| U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) |
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| California Endangered Species Act (CESA) |
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| California Department of Fish and Game |
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| Bureau of Land Management |
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| USDA Forest Service |
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| Natureserve Global Conservation Status Ranks |
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World Conservation Union - IUCN Red List
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