Description: The crevice spiny lizard is typically grey in color, but sometimes can have a ruddy red-brown appearance with a black and white collar around the neck region. The underside is typically light grey, but males often have blue patches on either side of their bellies. The tail typically has black banding. Their scales have a distinctly spiny texture. They can grow to 4.6 inches snout-to-vent length, and 12.2 inches total length.

Habitat: This lizard occupies rocky canyons, gullies, hillsides, and outcrops in largely barren areas, mesquite grassland, creosote bush desert, arid woodland (e.g., oak/pinyon pine/juniper), and spruce-fir forest. It is invariably closely tied to rocks and seeks shelter in crevices.

Range: In the United States, Sceloporus poinsettii occurs in the Chihuahua Desert and Edwards Plateau regions of Texas and New Mexico. In Mexico it occurs in the border states from the Sierra Madre Occidental of Sonora, eastward through Chihuahua, Coahuila, and Nuevo Leon. Southward its distribution is less well established, although it is known to occur throughout of the state of Durango, parts of Zacatecas, with additional records from San Luis Potosi in the southeast, and the Pacific slopes of the Sierra Madre Occidental of northern Jalisco in the southwest.

Found in these States: NM | TX

Diet: Crevice spiny lizards are insectivorous, consuming a wide variety of spiders, beetles, and other insects, but they will sometimes also consume tender vegetation.

Reproduction: Sceloporus poinsettii is one of the several species of Sceloporus that are ovoviviparous. Breeding occurs in the spring, and a litter of up to 11 young are born in midsummer.

Status: Listed as Least Concern in view of the relatively large and probably stable extent of occurrence, area of occupancy, number of subpopulations, and population size. No major threats are known.

Taxonomy: