Reptilia · Squamata
Lepidophyma luscaArenas-Moreno, Muñoz-Nolasco, Bautista-Del Moral, Rodríguez-Miranda, Domínguez-Guerrero, Méndez-De LA Cruz, 2021
No photograph of this species exists under a license anyone may reuse. It gets the same page regardless.
A rock-dwelling, day-active, meat-eating lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 53 mm snout to vent.
No English name has been recorded for this species.
Reptilia › Squamata › Xantusiidae › Lepidophyma
- Grows to
- 53.2mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives
- Saxicolous
Longer than only 25% of all species in Xantusiidae 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 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
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
- 26.8°C
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 30.1°C
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 53.2mm2 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 48.5mm2 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 22.5mm0.9 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 2.91g0.1 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 0.22g0.01 oz
Arenas-Moreno et al. 2021 (max 53.2 mm, females 48.53)
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Saxicolous
- Active season · months of the year
- 12months
- Region
- Neotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 190–220m
insectivorous ( (Arenas-Moreno et al. 2021))
diurnal-crepuscular (Arenas-Moreno et al. 2021)
Arenas-Moreno et al. 2021
Arenas-Moreno et al. 2021 (194-220 m)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Viviparous
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 1–5eggs
- Mean clutch
- 3.2eggs
"Five females gave birth in captivity a total of 16 neonates between 2nd to 13th June of 2019… range 1-5" (Arenas-Moreno et al. 2021)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Scincoidea
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Arenas-Moreno, Muñoz-Nolasco, Bautista-Del Moral, Rodríguez-Miranda, Domínguez-Guerrero, Méndez-De LA Cruz
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 2021
- Type locality
- Mexico
Keeping one
8.5 in × 8.5 in × 5.25 in(21 × 21 × 13 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 2 in (53.2 mm), at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
In a laboratory thermal gradient this species settled at 80 °F (26.8 °C).
Preferred body temperature, recorded in a laboratory gradient where the animal could choose freely. 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.
1kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 3 g, the heaviest recorded for Lepidophyma lusca — 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 female · snout to vent
- — Largest male · snout to vent
- — Largest female · shell length
- — Largest male · shell length
- — 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 · adult female, mean
- — Longest recorded life
- — Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How it hunts
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — Average clutch
- — 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
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — Pupil
- — Sex decided by
- — Conservation status
- — Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- — Population trend
- — Red List criteria
- — Biome
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Habitat
- — Active in
- — Range size
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 lusca. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/lepidophyma-lusca
@misc{lepidophyma_lusca_2026,
title = {Lepidophyma lusca},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/lepidophyma-lusca}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.