Description: Dusky giant ameivas are medium-sized lizards with a body mass of about 60 g and a typical snout to vent length of 120 to 130 mm. Snout-vent lengths have been recorded as high as 160 mm in females and 180 mm in males. Cranial width averages 18 mm. Giant ameivas have femoral pores on the ventral side of the hind legs. Pore size is similar in both males and females, at about 1 mm in diameter. However, males have a single row of pores, about 17 to 23, running down the leg, whereas females have 16 to 22. Femoral pores are easy to see and the scales that hold them are specialized. This specialization helps in identifying the difference between those and other scales in the surrounding area of the hind leg. The rest of their body is covered with smooth scales. Coloration in both males and females is the same. However, juveniles differ in color from adults. Their backs have lines running the length of their body, colored yellow in adults and white in juveniles. Apart from these lines covering the dorsal portions of their body, the rest of their coloring is a dark brown. Their ventral side is ivory.

Habitat: Ameiva praesignis is predominantly associated with open, xeric communities and dry forests. This species has been reported from banana plantations, open and cleared areas, and savannas and perianthropic situations in Central America; from flood-plain forests, deserts, and dry forests around Santa Marta, Colombia; from thorny xerophilous scrub, cultivated lands, tropophilous deciduousand semideciduous scrub, tropophilous semideciduous seasonal forests, coastal cloud forests, and cultivated lands in Falcón State, northwestern Venezuela; and from thornscrub in Maiquetía, Vargas, north-central Venezuela. It is conspicuously absent from the heavily forested Darién Gap, between Panama and northwestern Colombia. The species is expanding its range eastward in Panama by moving into areas cleared by man.

Range: This species, previously considered a subspecies of Ameiva ameiva, occurs in the lowlands from extreme southwestern Costa Rica along the Pacific versant to central Panama, where it occurs on both coasts in populations disjunct from those in northern Colombia; where the range extends more or less continuously to northwestern Venezuela. In Panama, the elevation range extends from sea level to 700 meters. Recently they have been introduced to areas of Florida.

Found in these States: FL

Diet: Giant ameivas are active foragers. Their diet varies regionally and seasonally and consists mainly of insects. The most common animals found in their diet are grasshoppers, butterflies, beetles, roaches, larvae, spiders, and termites. They have also been known to eat other species of lizards. What they eat is proportional to their snout-vent length; as they grow their prey becomes larger.

Reproduction: Giant ameivas reproduce by laying eggs in clutches, which vary in size regionally. Although little data exist from most regions, data have been collected from caatinga and cerrado habitats of Brazil. Clutch size can range from 3 to 11. Clutch size is directly related to snout-vent length of the female - larger females produce more eggs per clutch. In cerrado, females can lay up to 3 clutches per reproductive season. However, in caatinga giant ameivas may reproduce throughout the year. The reproductive habits of Ameiva ameiva are based on rainfall. In areas where rainfall is constant or unpredictable throughout the year, reproduction is year-round. In areas where there is a distinct dry season, reproduction only occurs during the rainy seasons. This is thought to be the result of lack of food for both adults and juveniles during dry seasons. There is little information on parental investment in this species. However, females invest heavily in supplying their eggs with nutrients before they are laid and males invest energy in mate guarding during mating.

Status: Listed as Least Concern in view of the large extent of occurrence, large number of locations, large population size, and lack of major threats.

Taxonomy: