Reptilia · Squamata
Liolaemus pictusDuméril & Bibron, 1837
Painted Tree Iguana
Photograph by Lucas Illanes, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A day-active, omnivorous lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 104 mm snout to vent.
Once published as Liolaemus major — those names reach this page.
Reptilia › Squamata › Liolaemidae › Liolaemus
- Grows to
- 104mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Omnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 9years
Longer than 91% of all species in Liolaemidae 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 49.7 to 120 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
44 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
- 2015
- Population trend
- Decreasing
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 9years
- Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
- 33.8–38.1°C93–101 °F
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 32.1°C90 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 28.8–35.4°C84–96 °F
Gutierrez et al. 2013:9; Cabezas-Cartes et al. 2015: 9, Boretto et al. 2020: 7 in females, 9 in males
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 104mm4 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 60mm2.25 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 60mm2.25 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 27.5mm1 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 27.5mm1 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 37.05g1.3 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 0.5g0.02 oz
max 104 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
- Omnivorous
- How it hunts
- Sit and wait
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Arboreal, saxicolous, terrestrial
- Habitat
- Forest
- Biome
- Temperate Broadleaf & Mixed Forests
- Region
- Neotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 1770m
- Range size
- 172,562km²
- Density
- 52–52.2per hectare
- Home range · largest recorded
- 1146.6m2
Omnivorous: invertebrates (who?, Pincheira-Donoso et al. 2008, Demangel 2016) and fruit (Alvarez 2004, Demangel 2016), insectivorous (Scolaro 2005, Scolaro 2006) Pincheira Donoso and Nunez 2005 says all subspecies except talcanensis are insectivorous, talcanensis is omnivorous (p371), consuming arthropods and seeds but not fruit and flowers, arthropods (Halloy et al. 2006), ontogenetic shifts: juveniles take more arthropods, adults more plants (Vidal and Labra 2008 figure 16.2), arthropods and mollusks (Acosta et al. 2020)
Vidal and Labra 2008, Mesquita et al. 2016
Arboreal (e.g., Mesquita et al. 2016, Ibarguengoytia et al. 2021, Infante et al. 2021), some arboreal, other terrestrial or saxicolous (Demangel 2016), Terrestrial (Ibarguengoytia and Cussac 2002)
770-1770 (Cabezas-Cartes et al. 2015), 0-1700 (Demangel 2016), 0-1600 (Ibarguengoytia and Cussac 2002)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Viviparous
- Average clutch
- 3.95eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 1–8eggs
- Mean clutch
- 3.4–4.5eggs
- Clutches in a year
- 0.42per year
- Clutches a year
- 0.33–0.5per year
- First breeds at
- 36–48months
either Oviparous (who?) or viviparous (Cei 1986, Schulte et al. 2000, Uetz 2006, Scolaro 2005, Pincheira-Donoso et al. 2008, Mesquita et al. 2016)
1-8 (Pincheira-Donoso, pers. Comm. 8.6.2011), 3-6 (Ibarguengoytia and Cussac 1996, Boretto et al. 2020), means 4.08-4.5 (Mesquita et al. 2016), 3-4 (Demangel 2016)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Pleurodonta
- Subspecies
- Liolaemus pictus pictus (DUMÉRIL & BIBRON 1837) Liolaemus pictus argentinus MÜLLER & HELLMICH 1939 Liolaemus pictus chiloeensis MÜLLER & HELLMICH 1939 Liolaemus pictus major BOULENGER 1885 Liolaemus pictus talcanensis URBINA & ZUÑIGA 1977 Liolaemus pictus codoceae PINCHEIRA-DONOSO & NUNEZ 2005
- Described by
- Duméril & Bibron
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1837
- Type locality
- Chile
Keeping one
16.5 in × 16.5 in × 16.5 in(42 × 42 × 42 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.
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 4 in (104 mm), at 4 × 4 × 4 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
In a laboratory thermal gradient this species settled at 93–101 °F (33.8–38.1 °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.
5kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 37 g, the heaviest recorded for Painted Tree Iguana — 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
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — 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
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Active in
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
Others in Liolaemidae
- Agua Negra Chuckwalla
- Agueda’s Rocky Lizard
- Aluminé River Smooth-throated Lizard
- Andes Tree Iguana
- Antofagasta Chuckwalla
- Antonieta’s lizard
- Antuco Chuckwalla
- Arambaré Smooth-throated Lizard
- Auca Mahuida Volcano Chuckwalla
- Austral Smooth-throated lizard
- Austromendocino Tree Iguana
- Awsanqati Smooth-throated Lizard
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). Liolaemus pictus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/liolaemus-pictus
@misc{liolaemus_pictus_2026,
title = {Liolaemus pictus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/liolaemus-pictus}
}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.