Range in California: Red
Click the map for a guide
to the other subspecies
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Adult male, Riverside County |
Adult female, Riverside County |
Adult female, Riverside County |
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Adult male, southern Inyo County |
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Adult male, southern Inyo County |
Adult male, San Diego County |
Adult male, Riverside County
© 2003 William Flaxington |
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Adult female, Riverside County.
I watched this lizard wait just above a beehive in the trunk of a cottonwood tree (the dark spot on the right). When she saw her chance, she ran down, stopped for a moment, then grabbed a bee and ate it. Here you can see her just about to grab a bee. |
Adult female, Riverside County |
Adult, Riverside County |
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| Male from the Kingston Mountains, San Bernardino County. © Steve Bledsoe |
Female from the Kingston Mountains, San Bernardino County. © Steve Bledsoe |
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Adult from the Coast Range near Coalinga, Kings County © Patrick Briggs |
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Displaying adult male, Washington County, Utah |
Displaying adult male, Washington County, Utah |
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Adult female, Washoe County, Nevada |
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Habitat |
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Habitat, San Bernardino County |
Habitat, San Diego County
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Habitat, Riverside County |
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Habitat, San Bernardino County |
Habitat, Panoche Hills, Coast Range,
San Benito County |
Habitat, Riverside County |
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Habitat, Riverside County |
Habitat, Kingston Mountains, San Bernardino County. © Steve Bledsoe |
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Short Video |
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| A male and a female Yellow-backed Spiny lizard meet up a tree and greet each other with push-up displays, nuzzling, and other interactions. |
Yellow-backed Spiny Lizards pose and do territorial push-up displays in Southwest Utah. |
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| Description |
| Size |
3 1/4 - 5 3/5 inches long from snout to vent (8.2 - 14.2 cm). (Stebbins 2003)
The largest of the Sceloporus species in California. |
| Appearance |
A robust, stocky lizard with large pointed keeled scales and a black wedge marked on the rear with pale coloring on the sides of the neck. 5 - 7 conspicuous pointed scales cover the ear. The tail detaches easily, but it will regenerate.
Color is light tan, yellowish, or brownish above with indistinct dark spots or crossbands. There is often rusty coloring on the sides. Dark coloring may fade as the animal grows older. Young have rows of dark blotches.
Males have enlarged postanal scales and femoral pores, a swollen tail base, and a bluish patch on the throat and on the sides of the belly with black on the edges. Males also have a dark purple to blackish band with light borders down the center of the back.
Females are pale in color underneath with little or no blue. The head of a female may be orange or reddish in the breeding season. |
| Behavior & Natural History |
Diurnal. Active generally from April through October, taking shelter during periods of excessive heat and cold. Sometimes seen basking in the winter. A good climber, often seen on rocks, trees and walls, as well as on the ground. Shelters under rocks, logs and other surface objects, and in cracks, burrows, and woodrat nests. Very wary. Escapes by running away quickly into brush, rocks, or burrows.
Males stand tall, extend the throat to expose the blue coloring, and push the body up and down to demonstrate their presence and command of the territory. Short movie of push-up display. |
| Diet |
| Eats a variety of small invertebrates and their larvae including ants, beetles, grasshoppers, spiders, centipedes, and caterpillars, and occasionally small lizards, leaves, flowers and berries. |
| Reproduction |
| Breeds in spring and early summer, generally May and June. A clutch of 4 - 19 eggs are laid between May and August. Young are typically seen in August and September. Females may lay more than one clutch during favorable years. |
| Range |
In California, found in the deserts from the desert slopes of the mountains east to the Colorado River, south into Baja California, and north into Inyo County. Also occurs on the eastern side of the inner central coast ranges north to the Panoche Hills. From near sea level to around 5,000 ft. (1,520 m). (Stebbins 2003)
A population on the coastal side of the southern California mountains at the lower Sweetwater River, may be introduced. (Lemm, 2006) |
| Habitat |
| Inhabits desert flats, semiarid plains, low mountain slopes, palm oases, riparian woods, including areas grown with Joshua trees, creosote bush, mesquite, yucca, and grasses. |
| Taxonomic Notes |
Sceloporus magister taxonomy has been very confusing recently (as of May, 2009). As things stand, Sceloporus magister in California represents either one species, possibly with two subspecies, or two full species, the distribution of which does not follow the distribution of the long-accepted subspecies.
In 1996, Grismer & McGuire (1996 Herpetologica 52(3): 416-427) recommended that no subspecies of S. magister should be recognized.
In 2006, Schulte, Macey, and Papenfuss split S. magister into three species - S. magister, S. uniformis, and S. bimaculosus, with two subspecies of S. magister - S. m. magister, and S. m. cephaloflavus. 1
If this analysis is accepted, in California, S. m. uniformis from the southern Sonoran Deserts becomes S. m. magister - Purple-backed Spiny Lizard, and S. m. uniformis from the Mojave Desert, the Central Valley, the Coast Ranges, and the Great Basin Desert (including Nevada) which includes the former subspecies S. m. transversus, become S. uniformis - Yellow-backed Spiny Lizard. However, their sample size was very small which makes it difficult to determine the ranges of these new species in California. Click this link to see an approximate map of the ranges of S. uniformis and S. m. magister.
In 2007, Leache and Mulcahy concluded that "S. magister appears to represent a single geographically variable and widespread species." 2
In 2008, the S.S.A.R., whose list this web site follows, adopted the 3 species taxonomy of Schulte et al in the sixth edition of their Scientific and Standard English Names of Amphibians and Reptiles of North America north of Mexico list.
I have decided to note this nomenclature, but wait to see if it is widely accepted before I use it on this web site.
In 2009, Collins & Taggart submitted the 2006 3 species proposal by Schulte, Macey, and Papenfuss to a lizard systematist group which disagreed, leaving them to continue to recognize one species - S. magister - Desert Spiny Lizard. |
| Conservation Issues (Conservation Status) |
| None. |
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Taxonomy |
| Family |
Phrynosomatidae |
Zebra-tailed, Earless, Fringe-toed, Spiny, Tree, Side-blotched, and Horned Lizards |
| Genus |
Sceloporus |
Spiny Lizards |
| Species |
magister |
Desert Spiny Lizard |
Subspecies
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uniformis |
Yellow-backed Spiny Lizard |
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Original Description |
Sceloporus magister - Hallowell, 1854 - Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Vol. 7, p. 93 Z
Sceloporus magister uniformis - Phelan and Brattstrom, 1955 - Herpetologica, Vol. 11, p. 7
from Original Description Citations for the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America © Ellin Beltz
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Meaning of the Scientific Name |
Sceloporus - Greek -skelos leg and porus - pore or opening - refers to the femoral pores on hind legs
magister - Latin - teacher or master - probably refers to the large size
uniformis - Latin - uni - one and formis - shape - refers to the lack of pattern on the dorsum
from Scientific and Common Names of the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America - Explained © Ellin Beltz
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Alternate Names |
Sceloporus magister - Desert Spiny Lizard (no subspecies recognized)
Using one taxonomy, this lizard consists of both
Sceloporus uniformis - Yellow-backed Spiny Lizard
and
Sceloporus magister magister - Purple-backed Spiny Lizard
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Related or Similar Neighboring California Lizards |
Sceloporus magister transversus - Barred Spiny Lizard
Sceloporus occidentalis longipes - Great Basin Fence Lizard
Sceloporus graciosus graciosus - Northern Sagebrush Lizard
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More Information and References |
Natureserve Explorer
California Dept. of Fish and Game
Stebbins, Robert C. A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians. 3rd Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003.
Behler, John L., & F. Wayne King. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians. Alfred A. Knopf, 1992.
Bartlett, R. D. & Patricia P. Bartlett. Guide and Reference to the Turtles and Lizards of Western North America (North of Mexico) and Hawaii. University Press of Florida, 2009.
Jones, Lawrence, Rob Lovich, editors. Lizards of the American Southwest: A Photographic Field Guide. Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2009.
Smith, Hobart M. Handbook of Lizards, Lizards of the United States and of Canada. Cornell University Press, 1946.
Lemm, Jeffrey. Field Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles of the San Diego Region (California Natural History Guides). University of California Press, 2006.
Brown et. al. Reptiles of Washington and Oregon. Seattle Audubon Society,1995.
Nussbaum, R. A., E. D. Brodie Jr., and R. M. Storm. Amphibians and Reptiles of the Pacific Northwest. Moscow,
Idaho: University Press of Idaho, 1983.
St. John, Alan D. Reptiles of the Northwest: Alaska to California; Rockies to the Coast. Lone Pine Publishing, 2002.
1 A genetic perspective on the geographic association of taxa among arid North American lizards of the Sceloporus magister complex (Squamata: Iguanidae: Phrynosomatinae)
James A. Schulte II, J. Robert Macey & Theodore J. Papenfuss 2006.
Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 39: 873-880
2 Phylogeny, divergence times and species limits of spiny lizards (Sceloporus magister species group) in western North American deserts and Baja California
ADAM D. LEACHE and DANIEL G. MULCAHY
Molecular Ecology (2007) doi: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2007.03556.x
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The following status listings come from the Special Animals List which is published several times each year by the California Department of Fish and Game.
This animal is not included on the Special Animals List, which indicates that there are no significant conservation concerns for it in California.
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Organization
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Status Listing
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| U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) |
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| California Endangered Species Act (CESA) |
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| California Department of Fish and Game |
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| Bureau of Land Management |
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| USDA Forest Service |
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| Natureserve Global Conservation Status Ranks |
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World Conservation Union - IUCN Red List
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