Reptilia · Squamata
Eremias argutaPallas, 1773
Arguta
Photograph by Andrey Butko, CC BY-SA, via Wikimedia Commons
A ground-dwelling, day-active, meat-eating lizard from the Palearctic region, reaching 100 mm snout to vent.
Also called Racerunner, Steppe-Runner.
Reptilia › Squamata › Lacertidae › Eremias
- Grows to
- 100mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives
- Terrestrial
Longer than 90% of all species in Lacertidae 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 35 to 444 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
43 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
- 2018
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 30.2°C86 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 30.2–32.2°C86–90 °F
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 100mm4 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 67.6mm2.75 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 72mm2.75 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 30mm1.25 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 30mm1.25 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 22.86g0.81 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 1.12g0.04 oz
max 100 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
- Terrestrial
- Habitat
- Desert, Forest, Grassland, Shrubland
- Biome
- Temperate Grasslands, Savannas & Shrublands
- Active season · months of the year
- 5–9months
- Region
- Palearctic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 220–2100m
- Range size
- 4,578,469km²
- Density
- 0.3–293.3per hectare
- Home range · largest recorded
- 80m2
Invertebrates (mostly insects, Kotenko 1986, Nikolskii 1915), "It feeds on beetles, ants, butterflies and their caterpillars, spiders, woodlice, and molluscs" (Szczerbak 2003, see also Dunayev and Orlova 2023), Archnids and insects (Kamali 2020)
Active foraging
(unimodal in spring, bimodal in summer, Kotenko 1986, see also Dunayev and Orlova 2023), diurnal (Kamali 2020)
"Altitudinal limits unclear. E. a. arguta occurs in lowlands whilst E. a. uzbekistanica is found at higher elevations up to (very tentatively) an estimated 900 m asl (" (Showler 2018), 1038-1839 (Dujsebayeva et al. 2019), 220 m (Krymov and Doronin 2021), max 2000-2200 (Dunayev and Orlova 2023)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Sex decided by
- Genes, ZW/ZZ
- Average clutch
- 3.98eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 1–12eggs
- Mean clutch
- 3–7eggs
- Clutches a year
- 1–2per year
- First breeds at
- 10–12months
3-6 (Arakelyan et al. 2011), 2-5, mean 3.5 (Karmishev and Yarigin 2013), 3-5 (Nikolskii 1915), 1-12 (Szczerbak 2003, Speybroeck et al. 2016), 2-8, mean 4.96 (Liang and Shi 2018), Liang et al. 2021 (mean 7), 2-6 (Buehler et al. 2021), 3 (Krymov and Doronin 2021; n = 1), 2-8 (Dunayev and Orlova 2023),
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Laterata
- Subspecies
- Eremias arguta arguta (PALLAS 1773) Eremias arguta darevskii TSARUK 1986 Eremias arguta deserti (GMELIN 1789) Eremias arguta transcaucasica DAREVSKY 1953 Eremias arguta uzbekistanica CHERNOV 1934
- Described by
- Pallas
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1773
- Type locality
- Kazakhstan
Keeping one
15.5 in × 15.5 in × 9.75 in(40 × 40 × 25 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 in (100 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 86 °F (30.2 °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.
3kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 23 g, the heaviest recorded for Arguta — 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
- — 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
- — Red List criteria
- — Active in
Others in Lacertidae
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). Eremias arguta. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/eremias-arguta
@misc{eremias_arguta_2026,
title = {Eremias arguta},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/eremias-arguta}
}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.