Reptilia · Squamata
Tropidurus hispidusSpix, 1825
Peters' Lava Lizard
Photograph by zebedeugalinha, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A day-active, omnivorous lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 143 mm snout to vent.
Also called Neotropical Lava Lizard.
Reptilia › Squamata › Tropiduridae › Tropidurus
- Grows to
- 143mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Omnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 2years
Longer than 97% 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
44 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
- 2014
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 2years
- Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
- 29.1–34.5°C84–94 °F
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 34.1°C93 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 32.2–36°C90–97 °F
Carey and Judge 2000: 1.6, Marchioro et al. 2005: 2
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 143mm5.75 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 83.8mm3.25 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 83.8mm3.25 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 28.11mm1 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 28.1mm1 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 94.7g3.3 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 0.7g0.02 oz
Shai Meiri, unpublished
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
- Sit and wait
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Arboreal, saxicolous, terrestrial
- Habitat
- Rocky, Savanna
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
- Active season · months of the year
- 12months
- Region
- Neotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 20–1420m
- Range size
- 3,583,749km²
- Home range · largest recorded
- 334.8m2
Arthropods (e.g., Ferreira et al. 2017, Mesquita et al. 2006, de Figueiredo et al. 2020)/ Omnivorous (Cooper and Vitt 2002) / Arthropods and some plants (Hoogmoed 1973)/ Arthropods and frogs (Vitt and Zani 1998), 50.5% plants, the rest arthropods (Van Sluys et al. 2004), invertebrates and frogs, also fruit in one area (Vitt et al. 1996), mostly leaves, also invertebrates (Kolodiuk et al. 2010), see values in Dutra et al. 2011 Table 5; see also Ribeiro and Freire 2011, see Gomes et al. 2015, arthropods and plants (Ferreira et al. 2017), mostly insects and plant material (Albuquerque et al. 2018), birds (Fernandes et al. 2020), a gecko (Dubeux et al. 2020), see also Senaris et al. 2018
e.g., Mesquita et al. 2016, Fenker et al. 2020
e.g., Pianka et al. 2017, Fenker et al. 2020, Senaris et al. 2018, Uchoa et al. 2022, Giacometti et al. 2022
Terrestrial and Saxicolous (e.g., Kohlsdorf et al. 2001), sometimes Arboreal (Avila-Pires 1995, Hoogmoed 1973)/ Saxicolous and Arboreal (Vitt and de Carvalho 1995, Senaris et al. 2018), terrestial, arboreal and saxicolous (Rodrigues 1996, Mesquita et al. 2016) / ubiquitous (Vitt 1995) / terrestrial and arboreal (Fuenmayor et al. 2005), "mostly found on tree trunks, walls, and open ground" (Albuquerque et al. 2018)/saxicolous (Fenker et al. 2020), general (Uchoa et al. 2022), mostly saxicolous and arboreal (Giacometti et al. 2022)
88 (Xavier and Dias 2015), 20-1420 (Senaris and Rojas-Runjaic 2019, Senaris and Rojas-Runjaic 2020)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Sex decided by
- Genes, XX/XY
- Average clutch
- 6.85eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 1–16eggs
- Mean clutch
- 5.6–8.1eggs
- Clutches in a year
- 2.5per year
- Clutches a year
- 1–3per year
6-13, mean 8.1 (Ribeiro et al. 2012, Aruda et al. 2019), means 1.667-7.563 (Mesquita et al. 2016 - smallest mean I have otherwise is 5.6), 1-16, means 5.9-7.6 (Albuquerque et al. 2018), 8 (Fenker et al. 2020), 4-6 (Senaris et al. 2018)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Pleurodonta
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Spix
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1825
- Type locality
- Brazil
Keeping one
22.5 in × 22.5 in × 22.5 in(57 × 57 × 57 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 5.75 in (143 mm), at 4 × 4 × 4 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
In a laboratory thermal gradient this species settled at 84–94 °F (29.1–34.5 °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.
11kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 95 g, the heaviest recorded for Peters' Lava 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 · nose to tail
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · a typical adult
- — Body mass · adult female, mean
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — 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
- — Red List criteria
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest 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). Tropidurus hispidus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/tropidurus-hispidus
@misc{tropidurus_hispidus_2026,
title = {Tropidurus hispidus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/tropidurus-hispidus}
}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.