Description: The western slender glass lizard is often called a glass “snake” because it is long, slender, and legless. However, this is indeed a true lizards, with eyelids and an ear opening on either side of the head; snakes have neither of these characteristics. Nearly two-thirds of this lizard is tail, and a large part of it can break off if grabbed by a predator (or a person). Glass lizards are tan or brown with black stripes.

Habitat: Occurs on prairies, pastures, in open woods, or on dry, rocky hillsides. Although it often takes shelter in clumps of grass or small mammal burrows, it also will burrow into loose soil. There have been reports of these lizards being plowed up by farmers working grain fields. It can be found in woods or dry rocky hillsides, in grass or the burrows of small mammals.

Range:

Found in these States: AR | IL | IN | KS | LA | MO | OK | TX | WI

Diet: A variety of insects and other invertebrates; they also eat other lizards and the eggs of ground-nesting birds.

Reproduction: From April to October, this species is active during the day as long as temperatures are between 50 and 90 F. Mating occurs in May, and females produce 5–17 eggs in June and July, laying them in a rotten log or under a rock. The mother remains with them until they hatch. There is only one clutch per season. Young take 3–4 years to reach adulthood.

Status: Although not endangered overall in the United States, it is listed as vulnerable in Iowa and endangered in Wisconsin. O. attenuatus is regarded as vulnerable in Iowa, where it is illegal to even capture them. Its primary threats are loss of habitat, and the fragmentation of what remains, by human development. Insecticides are harmful to the lizard because they can kill the insects that they consume and those insects can be ingested by the lizard.

Subspecies: None

Taxonomy: