Plateau Fence Lizard (Sceloporus tristichus)
Description: At up to 3.1 inches from snout to vent, the plateau fence lizard is a grayish, brownish, or greenish lizard. The upper side of its body has keeled scales and there is a series of narrow dark brown cross-bands on both sides of the midline. An elongated metallic blue patch can be found on each side of the belly and each side of the throat. Males are typically smaller than females with males and females in Montezuma County measuring 2.5 inches and 2.6 inches, respectively.
Habitat: The plateau fence lizard generally dwells in rocky and wooded areas, making use of canyon walls, boulder-strewn hillsides, fallen tree trunks, and other debris and vantage points.
Range: The plateau fence lizard is generally found in central Arizona, southwestern Utah, western Colorado, and the San Luis Valley. It can also be found in parts of New Mexico and Wyoming.
Diet: The lizard consumes mainly insects, spiders, and other arthropods.
Reproduction: Lays eggs. Females lay two clutches of 5-12 eggs a year, one in May and the other in June. Hatchings emerge mid-July-early September.
Status: Listed as Least Concern in view of the large and relatively stable extent of occurrence, area of occupancy, number of subpopulations, and population size. A split of this species into multiple species has been proposed, but further study is needed to clarify the geographic and taxonomic scope of the new species. Adopting such a split likely would not result in any species that are not Least Concern.
»» Kingdom: Animalia - Animals
»» Phylum: Chordata - Chordates
»» Subphylum: Vertebrata - Vertebrates
»» Class: Reptilia - Reptiles
»» Order: Squamata - Lizards
»» Family: Phrynosomatidae - North American Spiny Lizards
»» Genus: Sceloporus
»» Species: Sceloporus tristichus - Plateau Fence Lizard
»» Subspecies: None
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Plateau Fence Lizard", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0. Content may have been omitted from the original, but no content has been changed or extended.
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