Bakersfield Legless Lizard (Anniella grinnelli)
Description: 4 - 3/8 to 7 inches long from snout to vent. A small slender lizard with no legs, eyelids, a shovel-shaped snout, smooth shiny scales, and a blunt tail. Sometimes confused for a snake, but snakes have no eyelids. On close observation the presence of eyelids is apparent when this lizard blinks. The dorsum is light olive-grey. The sides are strong orange. Ventral color is grayish red (appears purple.) A mid-dorsal black stripe 1/2 scale wide is present from the parietals to the tip of the tail. Lateral black stripes one scale wide are present from the eye to the tip of the tail.
Habitat: Occurs in moist warm loose soil with plant cover. Moisture is essential. Occurs in sparsely vegetated areas of beach dunes, chaparral, pine-oak woodlands, desert scrub, sandy washes, and stream terraces with sycamores, cottonwoods, or oaks. Leaf litter under trees and bushes in sunny areas and dunes stabilized with bush lupine and mock heather often indicate suitable habitat. Often can be found under surface objects such as rocks, boards, driftwood, and logs. Can also be found by gently raking leaf litter under bushes and trees. Sometimes found in suburban gardens in Southern California.
Range: Range as presently understood includes the southern San Joaquin Valley (Bakersfield area, Kern County, elevations of about 120-254 meters) and an apparently disjunct area on the east side of the Carrizo Plain (San Luis Obispo County, elevations of about 2,000-2,500 meters), California
Found in these States:
CA
Diet: Eats primarily larval insects, beetles, termites, and spiders. Conceals itself beneath leaf litter or substrate then ambushes its prey.
Reproduction: Bears live young. Probably breeds between early spring and July, with 1 to 4 young (usually 2) born between September and November.
Status: The species persists in small patches within the Bakersfield city limits, but two of the three known Bakersfield populations recently were destroyed by housing dvelopment. The southern San Joaquin Valley has been extensively modified by urban and agricultural development. The Carrizo Plain area is subject to much less habitat alteration.
»» Kingdom: Animalia - Animals
»» Phylum: Chordata - Chordates
»» Subphylum: Vertebrata - Vertebrates
»» Class: Reptilia - Reptiles
»» Order: Squamata - Lizards
»» Family: Anniellidae - California Legless Lizards
»» Genus: Anniella
»» Species: Anniella grinnelli - Bakersfield Legless Lizard
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Bakersfield Legless Lizard", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0. Content may have been omitted from the original, but no content has been changed or extended.
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