All Angles Creatures
Squamata · XantusiidaeEntry 10,976 of 21,572

Reptilia · Squamata

Lepidophyma chicoasensisÁlvarez & Valentin, 1988

Sumidero Tropical Night Lizard

No photograph of this species exists under a license anyone may reuse. It gets the same page regardless.

A lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 117 mm snout to vent.

ReptiliaSquamataXantusiidaeLepidophyma

Grows to
117mm
greatest recorded
Weighs up to
32.2g
greatest
Red List
Data Deficient
Body length across Xantusiidae

Longer than 86% of all species in Xantusiidae anyone has measured.

86% of 36 species are smaller14% larger
36 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest153 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 36 to 153 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

28 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
Data Deficient
Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
2007

The animal itself

Limbs
Four legs
Venomous
No
Fangs
None

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
117mm4.5 in

max 117 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)

Length snout to vent · adult female mean
97.8mm3.75 in
Largest female · snout to vent
97.8mm3.75 in

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

Body mass · greatestcomputed
32.2g1.1 oz

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

Body mass · adult female, meanmeasured
17.3g0.61 oz

How it lives

Habitat
Forest
Biome
Tropical & Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests
Region
Neotropic
Mainland or island
Mainland
Elevation · above sea level
600m

Alvarez and Valentin 1988

Range size
10km²

Breeding

Reproduction
Viviparous
Average clutch
5eggs
Eggs or young per clutch
5eggs
Mean clutch
5eggs

Naming and history

Suborder
Sauria
Infraorder
Scincoidea
Subspecies
No
Described by
Álvarez & Valentin
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
No
Described in
1988
Type locality
Mexico

Keeping one

18.5 in × 18.5 in × 11.5 in(47 × 47 × 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 (117 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 Sumidero Tropical Night Lizard. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.

Feeding

4kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 32 g, the heaviest recorded for Sumidero Tropical Night 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 · 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 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
  • Active
  • Where it lives
  • 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
  • Population trend
  • Red List criteria
  • Active season · shortest recorded
  • Active season · longest recorded
  • Density · lowest recorded
  • Density · highest recorded
  • Home range · largest recorded
  • Active in

Others in Xantusiidae

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). Lepidophyma chicoasensis. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/lepidophyma-chicoasensis

@misc{lepidophyma_chicoasensis_2026,
  title  = {Lepidophyma chicoasensis},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/lepidophyma-chicoasensis}
}

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.