Podarcis guadarramaeBoscá, 1916

Guadarrama Wall Lizard

Photograph by Javier Sánchez Álvarez, CC BY, via iNaturalist

A day-active, meat-eating lizard from the Palearctic region, reaching 64 mm snout to vent.

Reptilia › Squamata › Lacertidae › Podarcis

Grows to: 64mm; greatest recorded
Eats: Carnivorous
Active: Diurnal
Lives: Saxicolous, terrestrial

Body length across Lacertidae

Longer than only 36% of all species in Lacertidae anyone has measured.

36% of 372 species are smaller64% larger

35 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest444 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 35 to 444 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

31 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

The animal itself

Limbs: Four legs
Venomous: No
Fangs: None
Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured: 30.6–31.5°C87–89 °F
Body temp in the wild · mean, when active: 20.7–28.7°C69–84 °F

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded: 64mm2.5 in
Length snout to vent · adult female mean: 48.6mm2 in
Largest female · snout to vent: 50.2mm2 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed: 6.12g0.22 oz
Body mass · adult female, meanmeasured: 2.02g0.07 oz

How it lives

Diet: Carnivorous
Active: Diurnal
Where it lives: Saxicolous, terrestrial
Biome: Mediterranean
Region: Palearctic
Mainland or island: Mainland
Elevation · above sea level: 650–3400m
Range size: 138,693km²

Breeding

Reproduction: Oviparous
Average clutch: 3.5eggs
Eggs or young per clutch: 2–5eggs
Clutches a year: 2–3per year

Naming and history

Suborder: Sauria
Infraorder: Laterata
Subspecies: Podarcis guadarramae guadarramae (BOSCÁ 1916) Podarcis guadarramae lusitanicus GENIEZ, SÁ-SOUSA, GUILLAUME, CLUCHIER & CROCHET 2014
Described by: Boscá
Moved to another genus · since it was first described: Yes
Described in: 1916
Type locality: Spain

Keeping one

10 in × 10 in × 6.25 in(26 × 26 × 16 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 2.5 in (64 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 87–89 °F (30.6–31.5 °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 6 g, the heaviest recorded for Guadarrama Wall 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
— 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
— Mean clutch · smallest reported
— Mean clutch · largest reported
— 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
— Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
— Population trend
— Red List criteria
— Active season · shortest recorded
— Active season · longest recorded
— Density · lowest recorded
— Density · highest recorded
— Home range · largest recorded
— Habitat
— Active in

Others in Lacertidae

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). Podarcis guadarramae. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/podarcis-guadarramae

@misc{podarcis_guadarramae_2026,
  title  = {Podarcis guadarramae},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/podarcis-guadarramae}
}

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.
GBIF Secretariat. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Used under CC BY 4.0. Common names aggregated from constituent checklists.
Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.