Reptilia · Squamata
Leiocephalus macropusCope, 1863
Monte Verde Curlytail Lizard
Photograph by Robin White, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A day-active, plant-eating lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 95 mm snout to vent.
Also called Cuban Side-blotched Curlytail.
Reptilia › Squamata › Leiocephalidae › Leiocephalus
- Grows to
- 95mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Herbivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives
- Arboreal, terrestrial
Longer than 52% of all species in Leiocephalidae 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 53 to 200 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
35 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
- 2016
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 95mm3.75 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 56.3mm2.25 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 56.3mm2.25 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 30.1mm1.25 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 30.1mm1.25 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 24.03g0.85 oz
max 95 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
- Herbivorous
- How it hunts
- Active foraging
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Arboreal, terrestrial
- Habitat
- Forest
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests
- Active season · months of the year
- 12months
- Region
- Neotropic
- Mainland or island
- Found only on islands
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 10m
- Range size
- 69,312km²
Omnivorous (mostly flowers, also Arthropods and mollusks, Schettino 1999), 57.7-82.4% plants, also arthropods, Anolis jubar (Henderson and Powell 2009), insects (Lando and Williams 1969)
Active (Lando and Williams 1969)
e.g., Lando and Williams 1969
Terrestrial and Leaf Litter and arboreal (Henderson and Powell 2009)/ terrestrial (Lando and Williams 1969)
imadiately adjacent to beaches (Lando and Williams 19690
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 2.38eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 1–3eggs
- Mean clutch
- 1.75–3eggs
mean 3 (Alfonso et al. 2012)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Pleurodonta
- Subspecies
- Leiocephalus macropus macropus COPE 1863 Leiocephalus macropus aegialus SCHWARTZ & GARRIDO 1967 Leiocephalus macropus asbolomus SCHWARTZ & GARRIDO 1967 Leiocephalus macropus felinoi GARRIDO 1979 Leiocephalus macropus hoplites ZUG 1959 Leiocephalus macropus hyacinthurus ZUG 1959 Leiocephalus macropus immaculatus HARDY 1958 Leiocephalus macropus koopmani ZUG 1959 Leiocephalus macropus lenticulatus GARRIDO 1973 Leiocephalus macropus phylax SCHWARTZ & GARRIDO 1967 Leiocephalus macropus torrei GARRIDO 1979
- Described by
- Cope
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1863
- Type locality
- Cuba
Keeping one
15 in × 15 in × 15 in(38 × 38 × 38 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes ground species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 and climbing species at 4 × 2.5 × 4 times snout-vent length.
Recorded both on the ground and climbing, so this is the larger of the two rules in every dimension.
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 3.75 in (95 mm), at 4 × 4 × 4 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Monte Verde Curlytail Lizard. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.
Feeding
Prey size does not apply. A herbivore's diet is judged on fibre, on the ratio of calcium to phosphorus, and on avoiding plants high in oxalates.
The animal does not take prey items. This is established practice, not a measurement.
3kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 24 g, the heaviest recorded for Monte Verde Curlytail Lizard — 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
- — Body mass at hatching
- — Longest recorded life
- — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
- — Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — 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
- — Red List criteria
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
Others in Leiocephalidae
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). Leiocephalus macropus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/leiocephalus-macropus
@misc{leiocephalus_macropus_2026,
title = {Leiocephalus macropus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/leiocephalus-macropus}
}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.