Reptilia · Squamata
Podarcis siculusRafinesque-Schmaltz, 1810
Italian Wall Lizard
Photograph by Andrea Poggi, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A day-active, omnivorous lizard from the Palearctic region, reaching 90 mm snout to vent.
Once published as Lacerta sicula, Podarcis sicula — those names reach this page.
Reptilia › Squamata › Lacertidae › Podarcis
- Grows to
- 90mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Omnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 13years
Longer than 84% of all species in Lacertidae 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 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
45 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
- 2009
- Population trend
- Increasing
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 13years
- Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
- 29.8–34.8°C86–95 °F
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 33.25°C92 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 30.2–36.3°C86–97 °F
TAU museum records: 3 years and 8 months, 13 (Hallmann and Griebeler 2015), 12 (Eroglu et al. 2017, nature)
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 90mm3.5 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 61.9mm2.5 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 61.9mm2.5 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 29mm1.25 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 29mm1.25 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 16.75g0.59 oz
- Body mass · adult female, meanmeasured
- 2.15g0.08 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 0.46g0.02 oz
max 90 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
- Active foraging
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Saxicolous, terrestrial
- Habitat
- Forest, Grassland, Rocky, Shrubland
- Biome
- Mediterranean
- Active season · months of the year
- 6.5–12months
- Region
- Palearctic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 2200m
- Range size
- 276,517km²
- Density
- 5.1–1100per hectare
Arthropods and fruit (Arnold 1987, Street 1979) also slugs, snails and worms (Street 1979), 0 to 12.3% plants and juvenile frogs in a botanical garden (Corti and Cascio 2002), 5.5%-47.5% plants (Herrel et al. 2008), 2.38% plants (Salvador 2006), arthropods (Giulia et al. 2019), invertebrates (Taverne et al. 2019)
Banfi et al. 2023
Terrestrial and Saxicolous (see Sources (general) column)
max 2000 (Hallmann and Griebeler 2015), 0-2200 (Speybroeck et al. 2016, Kwet 2015), 28 (Eroglu et al. 2017)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Sex decided by
- Genes, ZW/ZZ
- Average clutch
- 5.7eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 2–12eggs
- Mean clutch
- 4.23–7.2eggs
- Clutches in a year
- 3per year
- Clutches a year
- 1–5per year
- First breeds at
- 10–14months
7.17 (Hallmann and Griebeler 2015), 2-8 (Speybroeck et al. 2016), 4-12 (Kwet 2015), 2-8, mean 4.23 ± 1.53 (Biaggini and Corti 2017), Biaggini and Corti 2019: "Clutch size was 3.38 ± 1.04, fitting the range 3.1–4.7 indicated in previous studies (Henle 1988, Monti et al. 2013, Biaggini and Corti 2017), while Capula et al. (1993) recorded quite larger clutches, made up of 6.00 ± 1.52 eggs.",
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Laterata
- Subspecies
- Podarcis siculus aemiliani CAPOLONGO 1984 Podarcis siculus albiventris BONAPARTE 1838 Podarcis siculus amparoae CAPOLONGO 1979 Podarcis siculus astorgae (MERTENS 1937) Podarcis siculus bagnolensis (MERTENS 1937) Podarcis siculus bolei (BRELIH 1961) Podarcis siculus calabra (TADDEI 1949) Podarcis siculus calabresiae (TADDEI 1949) Podarcis siculus campana (TADDEI 1949) Podarcis siculus campestris (DE BETTA 1857) Podarcis siculus caporiaccoi (TADDEI 1949) Podarcis siculus catanensis (TADDEI 1949) Podarcis siculus cattaroi (TADDEI 1950) Podarcis siculus cerbolensis (TADDEI 1949) Podarcis siculus ciclopica (TADDEI 1949) Podarcis siculus coeruleus (EIMER 1872) Podarcis siculus dupinici (RADOVANOVIC 1956) Podarcis siculus fasciatus (RADOVANOVIC 1956) Podarcis siculus fiumanoideus (BRELIH 1963) Podarcis siculus flavigulus (MERTENS 1937) Podarcis siculus gallensis (EIMER 1881) Podarcis siculus hadzii (BRELIH 1961) Podarcis siculus hieroglyphicus (BERTHOLD 1840) Podarcis siculus insularum (MERTENS 1937) Podarcis siculus klemmeri (LANZA & CAPOLONGO 1972) Podarcis siculus laganjensis (RADOVANOVIC 1956) Podarcis siculus massinei (MERTENS 1961) Podarcis siculus medemi (MERTENS 1942) Podarcis siculus mediofasciatus (RADOVANOVIC 1959) Podarcis siculus muelleri (TADDEI 1949) Podarcis siculus monaconensis (EIMER 1881) Podarcis siculus nikolici (BRELIH 1961) Podarcis siculus parkeri (MERTENS 1926) Podarcis siculus paulae (LANZA, ADRIANI & ROMITI 1971) Podarcis siculus pirosoensis (MERTENS 1937) Podarcis siculus polenci (BRELIH 1961) Podarcis siculus premudanus (RADOVANOVIC 1959) Podarcis siculus premudensis (RADOVANOVIC 1959) Podarcis siculus pretneri (BRELIH 1961) Podarcis siculus radovanovici (BRELIH 1961) Podarcis siculus ragusae (WETTSTEIN 1931) Podarcis siculus roberti (TADDEI 1949) Podarcis siculus salfii (LANZA 1954) Podarcis siculus samogradi (RADOVANOVIC 1956) Podarcis siculus sanctinicolai (TADDEI 1949) Podarcis siculus sanctistephani (MERTENS 1926) Podarcis siculus scopelicus (TADDEI 1950) Podarcis siculus siculus (RAFINESQUE-SCHMALTZ 1810) Podarcis siculus strombolensis (TADDEI 1949) Podarcis siculus tyrrhenicus (MERTENS 1932) Podarcis siculus vesseljuchi (RADOVANOVIC 1959) Podarcis siculus zeii (BRELIH 1961)
- Described by
- Rafinesque-Schmaltz
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1810
Keeping one
14 in × 14 in × 8.75 in(36 × 36 × 23 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 3.5 in (90 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 86–95 °F (29.8–34.8 °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.
2kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 17 g, the heaviest recorded for Italian 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.
Morphs
1 with peer-reviewed genetics behind them, 0 resting on breeder consensus. Most references present both with the same confidence.
- Skin colourpeer reviewed
- Evolutionary plasticity in insular lizard, adapting over reproduction, metabolism, and color variation. — Biology (Basel) 2023
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
- — 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
- — Red List criteria
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Type locality
- — Active in
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
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 siculus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/podarcis-siculus
@misc{podarcis_siculus_2026,
title = {Podarcis siculus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/podarcis-siculus}
}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.