
Reptilia · Squamata
Pholidoscelis auberiCocteau, 1838
Auber's Ameiva
Photograph by Pirataber, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A ground-dwelling, day-active, meat-eating lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 136 mm snout to vent.
Also called Cuban Groundlizard.
Once published as Ameiva auberi — those names reach this page.
Reptilia › Squamata › Teiidae › Pholidoscelis
- Grows to
- 136mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives
- Terrestrial
Longer than 72% of all species in Teiidae 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 52.4 to 614 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
33 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
- 136mm5.25 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 77mm3 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 77mm3 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 33.4mm1.25 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 33.4mm1.25 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 77.32g2.7 oz
max 136 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
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Active foraging
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Terrestrial
- Habitat
- Forest
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests
- Region
- Neotropic
- Mainland or island
- Found only on islands
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 300m
- Range size
- 111,514km²
insects and frogs (Maure and Rodriguez-Cabrera 2018), insects (Lando and Williams 1969)
Lando and Williams 1969
e.g., Torres et al. 2014, Lando and Williams 1969
3 (Maure and Rodriguez-Cabrera 2018), 15ft from the high tide mark (Lando and Williams 1969; horisontal, prsumably, SM)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 1eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 1eggs
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Laterata
- Subspecies
- Pholidoscelis auberi auberi (COCTEAU 1838) Pholidoscelis auberi abducta (SCHWARTZ 1970) Pholidoscelis auberi atrothorax (SCHWARTZ 1970) Pholidoscelis auberi behringensis (LEE & SCHWARTZ 1985) Pholidoscelis auberi bilateralis (MCCOY 1970) Pholidoscelis auberi cacuminis (SCHWARTZ 1970) Pholidoscelis auberi citra (SCHWARTZ 1970) Pholidoscelis auberi denticola (SCHWARTZ 1970) Pholidoscelis auberi extorris (SCHWARTZ 1970) Pholidoscelis auberi extraria (SCHWARTZ 1970) Pholidoscelis auberi felis (MCCOY 1970) Pholidoscelis auberi focalis (MCCOY 1970) Pholidoscelis auberi galbiceps (SCHWARTZ 1970) Pholidoscelis auberi garridoi (SCHWARTZ 1970) Pholidoscelis auberi gemmea (SCHWARTZ 1970) Pholidoscelis auberi granti (SCHWARTZ 1970) Pholidoscelis auberi hardyi (SCHWARTZ 1970) Pholidoscelis auberi kingi (MCCOY 1970) Pholidoscelis auberi llanensis (SCHWARTZ 1970) Pholidoscelis auberi marcida (SCHWARTZ 1970) Pholidoscelis auberi multilineata (MCCOY 1970) Pholidoscelis auberi nigriventris (GALI & GARRIDO 1987) Pholidoscelis auberi obsoleta (MCCOY in SCHWARTZ & MCCOY 1970) Pholidoscelis auberi orlandoi (SCHWARTZ & MCCOY 1975) Pholidoscelis auberi parvinsulae (LEE & SCHWARTZ 1985) Pholidoscelis auberi paulsoni (SCHWARTZ in SCHWARTZ & MCCOY 1970) Pholidoscelis auberi peradusta (SCHWARTZ in SCHWARTZ & MCCOY 1970) Pholidoscelis auberi procer (SCHWARTZ in SCHWARTZ & MCCOY 1970) Pholidoscelis auberi pullata (SCHWARTZ in SCHWARTZ & MCCOY 1970) Pholidoscelis auberi richmondi (MCCOY in SCHWARTZ & MCCOY 1970) Pholidoscelis auberi sabulicolor (SCHWARTZ in SCHWARTZ & MCCOY 1970) Pholidoscelis auberi sanfelipensis (GARRIDO 1975) Pholidoscelis auberi schwartzi (GALI & GARRIDO 1987) Pholidoscelis auberi secta (SCHWARTZ in SCHWARTZ & MCCOY 1970) Pholidoscelis auberi sideroxylon (LEE & SCHWARTZ 1985) Pholidoscelis auberi sublesta (SCHWARTZ in SCHWARTZ & MCCOY 1970) Pholidoscelis auberi thoracica (COPE 1862) Pholidoscelis auberi ustulata (SCHWARTZ in SCHWARTZ & MCCOY 1970) Pholidoscelis auberi vulturnus (LEE & SCHWARTZ 1985) Pholidoscelis auberi zugi (SCHWARTZ in SCHWARTZ & MCCOY 1970)
- Described by
- Cocteau
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1838
- Type locality
- Cuba
Keeping one
21.5 in × 21.5 in × 13.5 in(54 × 54 × 34 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 5.25 in (136 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 Auber's Ameiva. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.
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.
9kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 77 g, the heaviest recorded for Auber's Ameiva — 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
- — Mean clutch · smallest reported
- — Mean clutch · largest reported
- — 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
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
Others in Teiidae
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). Pholidoscelis auberi. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/pholidoscelis-auberi
@misc{pholidoscelis_auberi_2026,
title = {Pholidoscelis auberi},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/pholidoscelis-auberi}
}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.