Reptilia · Squamata
Ameivula ocelliferaSpix, 1825
Spix's Whiptail
Photograph by stephen, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A day-active, meat-eating lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 120 mm snout to vent.
Once published as Cnemidophorus ocellifer — those names reach this page.
Reptilia › Squamata › Teiidae › Ameivula
- Grows to
- 120mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives
- Saxicolous, terrestrial
Longer than 60% of all species in Teiidae anyone has measured.
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 52.4 to 614 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
40 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
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- 2014
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 37.25°C99 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 34.8–40.1°C95–104 °F
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 120mm4.75 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 62mm2.5 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 62.5mm2.5 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 27.5mm1 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 27.5mm1 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 52.39g1.8 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 0.82g0.03 oz
max 120 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)
snout-vent length; the source column mixes this with straight carapace length
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Active foraging
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Saxicolous, terrestrial
- Habitat
- Savanna
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
- Active season · months of the year
- 12months
- Region
- Neotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Lowest it lives · above sea level
- 190m
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 1200m
- Range size
- 7,006,555km²
Arthropods (e.g., Sales et al. 2012, Sales and Freire 2015, Travassos et al. 2015, Ferreira et al. 2017, details in Albuquerque et al. 2018, Zanchi-Silva et al. 2020, details in Menezes et al. 2021), omnivorous (Oliveira et al. 2022d, see Table 1; 23.5% in volume)
e.g., Sales and Freire 2015, Mesquita et al. 2016, Fenker et al. 2020
e.g., Sales and Freire 2016, Fenker et al. 2020, Uchoa et al. 2022
Leaf Litter / Terrestrial and Saxicolous (Mesquita and Colli 2003) / terrestrial (Vitt 1991, Mesquita et al. 2016, Fenker et al. 2020, Uchoa et al. 2022), "mostly found inside bushes, among grasses, or on open ground." (Albuquerque et al. 2018)
5-1196 (Uchoa et al. 2022)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 2.45eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 1–5eggs
- Mean clutch
- 1.5–3.4eggs
- Clutches a year
- 1–5per year
means 1.5-6.583 (Mesquita et al. 2016, but the latter is an outliers, though supposedly based on 36 clutches - the 2nd largest is 3.4, the third 3.3, the largest I previously had is 2.7), 1-5 (Nascimento et al. 2015), 1-5 mean 2.67 (Vitt 1983), 1-4, mean 2.41 (Sales and Freire 2016), 1-4 means 1.5-2.03 (Albuquerque et al. 2018), 3 (Fenker et al. 2020), Menezes and Rocha 2014 (1-4, means 1.5-2.7)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Laterata
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Spix
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1825
- Type locality
- Brazil
Keeping one
19 in × 19 in × 12 in(48 × 48 × 30 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.
Lives on rock, so stable hard surfaces and basking ledges suit it.
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 4.75 in (120 mm), at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
Active animals measured in the wild averaged 99 °F (37.3 °C).
Mean body temperature of active individuals measured in nature. A measurement of the animal, not a setting for a thermostat.
Feeding
A prey item should be no wider than the space between the animal's eyes.
Widely used across reptile husbandry references. The stated reason is that the gap approximates the width of the throat, so wider prey is associated with impaction. This is established practice, not a measurement.
7kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 52 g, the heaviest recorded for Spix's Whiptail — 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 · nose to tail
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · a typical adult
- — Body mass · adult female, mean
- — Longest recorded life
- — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — Clutches in a year
- — 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
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — Pupil
- — Sex decided by
- — Red List criteria
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
Others in Teiidae
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). Ameivula ocellifera. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/ameivula-ocellifera
@misc{ameivula_ocellifera_2026,
title = {Ameivula ocellifera},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/ameivula-ocellifera}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.