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Squamata · AnguidaeEntry 29 of 21,572
Sierra de Miahuatlán Abronia, Abronia cuetzpali

Reptilia · Squamata

Abronia cuetzpaliCampbell, Solano-Zavaleta, Flores-Villela, Caviedes-Solis, Frost, 2016

Sierra de Miahuatlán Abronia

Photograph by José Leoncio Olivera Barragán, CC BY, via iNaturalist

A ground-dwelling, day-active lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 115 mm snout to vent.

Also called Sierra de Miahuatlán Arboreal Alligator Lizard.

ReptiliaSquamataAnguidaeAbronia

Grows to
115mm
greatest recorded
Active
Diurnal
Lives
Terrestrial
Weighs up to
25.48g
greatest
Body length across Anguidae

Longer than only 31% of all species in Anguidae anyone has measured.

31% of 86 species are smaller69% larger
72 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest610 mm

The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because body length here runs from 72 to 610 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.

What is known

24 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.

Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.

Standing in the world

Still living
Extant

The animal itself

Limbs
Four legs
Venomous
No
Fangs
None

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
115mm4.5 in

Shai Meiri, unpublished

Length snout to vent · adult female mean
114mm4.5 in
Largest female · snout to vent
114mm4.5 in

snout-vent length; the source column mixes this with straight carapace length

Body mass · greatestcomputed
25.48g0.9 oz

computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed

How it lives

Active
Diurnal

Campbell et al. 2016

Where it lives
Terrestrial
Biome
Tropical & Subtropical Coniferous Forests
Region
Neotropic
Mainland or island
Mainland
Elevation · above sea level
1710–2370m

1711-2150 (Campbell et al. 2016), 2365 (Herp. Review, June 2019)

Range size
609km²

Breeding

Reproduction
Oviparous

all turtles

Average clutch
6eggs

Naming and history

Suborder
Sauria
Infraorder
Anguimoprha
Subspecies
No
Described by
Campbell, Solano-Zavaleta, Flores-Villela, Caviedes-Solis, Frost
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
No
Described in
2016
Type locality
Mexico

Keeping one

18 in × 18 in × 11.5 in(46 × 46 × 29 cm)

Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.

The standard sizes ground-dwelling species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times snout-vent length.

Mindestanforderungen an die Haltung von Reptilien (Sachverständigengutachten), German Federal Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry, Animal Welfare Division, 10 January 1997. The standard states these floor areas are recommendations rather than binding limits.

From this animal’s own snout-vent length of 4.5 in (115 mm), at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.

No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Sierra de Miahuatlán Abronia. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.

Feeding

3kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 25 g, the heaviest recorded for Sierra de Miahuatlán Abronia — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.

An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.

What nobody knows

These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.

  • Length snout to vent · adult male mean
  • Length snout to vent · adult mean
  • Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
  • Female length · mean, nose to tail
  • Length nose to tail · adult male mean
  • Length nose to tail · adult mean
  • Largest male · snout to vent
  • Largest female · shell length
  • Largest male · shell length
  • Hatchling length · snout to vent
  • Hatchling length · nose to tail
  • Largest juvenile · snout to vent
  • Largest juvenile · shell length
  • Egg length
  • Egg width
  • Body mass · a typical adult
  • Body mass · adult female, mean
  • Body mass at hatching
  • Longest recorded life
  • Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
  • Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
  • Diet
  • Eats arthropods
  • Eats vertebrates
  • Eats plant matter
  • How it hunts
  • How the young develop
  • Gestation or incubation
  • Smallest clutch recorded
  • Largest clutch recorded
  • Mean clutch · smallest reported
  • Mean clutch · largest reported
  • Clutches in a year
  • Clutches a year · fewest
  • Clutches a year · most
  • First breeds from · youngest recorded
  • First breeds by · oldest recorded
  • Hatchling length · smallest recorded
  • Hatchling length · largest recorded
  • Age at first breeding · female
  • Mature from · youngest recorded
  • Mature by · oldest recorded
  • Size at maturity · smallest recorded
  • Size at maturity · largest recorded
  • Body temp in the wild · lowest mean recorded
  • Body temp in the wild · highest mean recorded
  • Colour on the back
  • Pattern on the back
  • Pupil
  • Sex decided by
  • Conservation status
  • Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
  • Population trend
  • Red List criteria
  • Active season · shortest recorded
  • Active season · longest recorded
  • Density · lowest recorded
  • Density · highest recorded
  • Home range · largest recorded
  • Habitat
  • Active in

Others in Anguidae

Take this data

Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.

This species as JSON · the whole dataset

Cite this page

The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Abronia cuetzpali. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/abronia-cuetzpali

@misc{abronia_cuetzpali_2026,
  title  = {Abronia cuetzpali},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/abronia-cuetzpali}
}

Sources

  1. Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
  2. Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
  3. Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.