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Squamata · TeiidaeEntry 9,477 of 21,572
Edward’s Middle American Ameiva, Holcosus festivus

Reptilia · Squamata

Holcosus festivusLichtenstein & Martens, 1856

Edward’s Middle American Ameiva

Photograph by anasacuta, CC BY, via iNaturalist

A ground-dwelling, day-active, meat-eating lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 144 mm snout to vent.

Once published as Ameiva festiva — those names reach this page.

Reptilia › Squamata › Teiidae › Holcosus

Grows to
144mm
greatest recorded
Eats
Carnivorous
Active
Diurnal
Lives
Terrestrial
Body length across Teiidae

Longer than 76% of all species in Teiidae anyone has measured.

76% of 170 species are smaller24% larger
52.4 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest614 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 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

41 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
2013
Population trend
Stable

The animal itself

Limbs
Four legs
Venomous
No
Fangs
None
Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
36.05°C97 °F

mean body temperature of active individuals in nature

Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
34.4–37.7°C94–100 °F

body temperature of active animals in nature

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
144mm5.75 in

max 144 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)

Length snout to vent · adult female mean
88mm3.5 in
Largest female · snout to vent
88mm3.5 in

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

Hatchling length · snout to vent
37mm1.5 in
Largest juvenile · snout to vent
37mm1.5 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed
92.36g3.3 oz

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

Body mass · adult female, meanmeasured
29.29g1 oz

How it lives

Diet
Carnivorous

Arthropods and Small vertebrates (e.g., Guyer and Donnelly 2005, Toledo et al. 2007, Vitt and Zani 1996, McCranie 2018), insects, insect eggs and insect larvae (Henderson 2010), a frog (Chaves-Acuna and Salas-Solano 2021)

How it hunts
Active foraging

e.g., Mesquita et al. 2016, Leenders 2019

Active
Diurnal

e.g., McCranie 2018, Leenders 2019, Zeas and Alvarado 2015

Where it lives
Terrestrial

Leaf Litter and Terrestrial (e.g., Henderson 2010)/ usually terrestrial (McCranie 2018)

Habitat
Forest
Biome
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Active season · months of the year
12months
Region
Neotropic
Mainland or island
Mainland
Highest it lives · above sea level
1400m

0-1400 (McCranie 2018), near sea level to 1200 (Leenders 2019)

Range size
455,426km²
Density · highest recorded
13per hectare

Breeding

Reproduction
Oviparous
Average clutch
2.75eggs
Eggs or young per clutch
1–10eggs

means 2.2-3.455 (Mesquita et al. 2016), 2-3 (Henderson 2010), 1-4 (McCranie 2018, Leenders 2019), 2-4 (Zeas and Alvarado 2015)

Mean clutch
2–3.5eggs
Clutches a year
2–4per year
First breeds at
3–12months

Naming and history

Suborder
Sauria
Infraorder
Laterata
Subspecies
No
Described by
Lichtenstein & Martens
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
Yes
Described in
1856
Type locality
Panama

Keeping one

22.5 in × 22.5 in × 14 in(58 × 58 × 36 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 5.75 in (144 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 97 °F (36.1 °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.

11kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 92 g, the heaviest recorded for Edward’s Middle American Ameiva — 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 at hatching
  • — 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
  • — Sex decided by
  • — Red List criteria
  • — Density · lowest recorded
  • — Home range · largest recorded
  • — Active in
  • — Lowest it lives · above sea level

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). Holcosus festivus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/holcosus-festivus

@misc{holcosus_festivus_2026,
  title  = {Holcosus festivus},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/holcosus-festivus}
}

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.