Reptilia · Squamata
Microlophus theresioidesDonoso-Barros, 1966
Pica Pacific Iguana
Photograph by Thibaud Aronson, CC BY-SA, via Wikimedia Commons
A day-active, omnivorous lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 120 mm snout to vent.
Also called Small Pacific Iguana, Small Pacific iguana.
Once published as Tropidurus theresioides — those names reach this page.
Reptilia › Squamata › Tropiduridae › Microlophus
- Grows to
- 120mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Omnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives
- Arboreal, saxicolous, terrestrial
Longer than 86% of all species in Tropiduridae 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 57 to 177 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
34 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
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 34.7°C94 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 34.7°C
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 120mm4.75 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 80.6mm3.25 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 80.6mm3.25 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 58.79g2.1 oz
Toyama and Boccia 2021 (max 120 mm)
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
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Arboreal, saxicolous, terrestrial
- Habitat
- Desert
- Biome
- Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
- Region
- Neotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 20–3540m
- Range size
- 48,895km²
(Donoso-Barros 1966, Ortiz-Zapata 1980, Demangel 2016) see also Vidal and Labra 2008 tables 16.1, 16.3 and figure 16.1
e.g., Mella Avila 2022
Arboreal / all photos in Demangel 2016 show indivisduals on rocks or on the ground
23-3534 (Avila and Ponce 2019, Mella Avila 2022)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 2.8eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 1–5eggs
- Mean clutch
- 2.8eggs
- Clutches a year
- 1–2per year
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Pleurodonta
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Donoso-Barros
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1966
- Type locality
- Chile
Keeping one
19 in × 19 in × 19 in(48 × 48 × 48 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 4.75 in (120 mm), at 4 × 4 × 4 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
Active animals measured in the wild averaged 94 °F (34.7 °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.
7kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 59 g, the heaviest recorded for Pica Pacific 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 · 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 · adult female, mean
- — Body mass at hatching
- — Longest recorded life
- — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How it hunts
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — Clutches in a year
- — 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
- — 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 Tropiduridae
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). Microlophus theresioides. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/microlophus-theresioides
@misc{microlophus_theresioides_2026,
title = {Microlophus theresioides},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/microlophus-theresioides}
}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.