All Angles Creatures
Squamata · DiploglossidaeEntry 19,010 of 21,572

Reptilia · Squamata

Siderolamprus bivittatusBoulenger, 1895

Two-banded galliwasp

No photograph of this species exists under a license anyone may reuse. It gets the same page regardless.

A ground-dwelling lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 111 mm snout to vent.

Once published as Celestus bivittatus, Diploglossus bivittatus — those names reach this page.

ReptiliaSquamataDiploglossidaeSiderolamprus

Grows to
111.4mm
greatest recorded
Lives
Terrestrial
Weighs up to
22.81g
greatest
Red List
Endangered
Body length across Diploglossidae

Longer than 51% of all species in Diploglossidae anyone has measured.

51% of 53 species are smaller49% larger
64 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest340 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 64 to 340 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

28 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
Endangered
Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
2012
Population trend
Decreasing
Red List criteria
B1ab(iii)

The animal itself

Limbs
Four legs
Venomous
No
Fangs
None

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
111.4mm4.5 in

Shai Meiri, unpublished

Length snout to vent · adult female mean
91mm3.5 in
Hatchling length · snout to vent
28.2mm1 in
Largest juvenile · snout to vent
28.2mm1 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed
22.81g0.8 oz

computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed

How it lives

Where it lives
Terrestrial

Leaf Litter/terrestrial (Corry et al. 2010)

Biome
Tropical & Subtropical Coniferous Forests
Region
Neotropic
Mainland or island
Mainland
Elevation · above sea level
800–1990m

990-1980 (Corry et al. 2010), 1330-2100 (McCranie 2018), 900-1900 (Zeas and Alvarado 2015)

Breeding

Reproduction
Viviparous
Average clutch
10eggs
Eggs or young per clutch
10eggs

Corry et al. 2010, Zeas and Alvarado 2015

Naming and history

Suborder
Sauria
Infraorder
Anguimoprha
Subspecies
No
Described by
Boulenger
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
Yes
Described in
1895
Type locality
Nicaragua

Keeping one

Two-banded galliwasp is assessed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Species at risk in the wild are often covered by CITES and by national law, which decide what may be bought, sold, moved across a border or kept at all — and captive-bred and wild-caught animals are usually treated differently. Check the rules where you are before acquiring one. Nothing below is a judgement about keeping this species; it is what a published welfare standard says about space, and what the animal itself was measured doing.

17.5 in × 17.5 in × 11 in(45 × 45 × 28 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 4.5 in (111.4 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 Two-banded galliwasp. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.

Feeding

3kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 23 g, the heaviest recorded for Two-banded galliwasp — 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 female · snout to vent
  • 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
  • Diet
  • Eats arthropods
  • Eats vertebrates
  • Eats plant matter
  • How it hunts
  • Active
  • 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
  • Active season · shortest recorded
  • Active season · longest recorded
  • Density · lowest recorded
  • Density · highest recorded
  • Home range · largest recorded
  • Habitat
  • Active in
  • Range size

Others in Diploglossidae

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). Siderolamprus bivittatus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/siderolamprus-bivittatus

@misc{siderolamprus_bivittatus_2026,
  title  = {Siderolamprus bivittatus},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/siderolamprus-bivittatus}
}

Sources

  1. Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
  2. Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
  3. Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.