Description: 2.5 to 4 inches from snout to vent, up to almost 9 inches including tail. A pale thin lizard with very long legs and a long flat tail with black crossbars. Scales are granular. Gray or light brown above with light spots and paired dark blotches, which are more distinct on females. As with many lizards, the coloring is darker during lower temperatures, and lighter with very high temperatures. Dark crossbars or bands on the tail become very distinct black and white underneath. This black and white zebra-like pattern gives this lizard its name. There is pale yellow and orange coloring on the sides. Males have two dark bars and develop a patch of blue-green coloring on the sides of the mid belly, which is visible when viewed from the side, during the breeding season. Dark belly markings are faint or absent on females.

Habitat: Open sandy desert washes, desert pavement, and hard pan, with scant widely-spaced vegetation and open areas. Sometimes found in wind-blown sand dunes near hard-packed ground.

Range: In California, this species inhabits the Mojave and Colorado Deserts up to the desert slopes of the Peninsular and Transverse Mountains, and from the Owens Valley north along the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Found on the coastal slopes of the mountains at San Jacinto Wash and Cajon Wash, where one was observed as far south as the Santa Ana River. The species ranges outside California north into northern Nevada, east into extreme southwest Utah, south through Arizona and extreme southwest New Mexico, to the cape region of Baja California and across the gulf along the west coast of Mexico.

Found in these States: CA | NM | NV

Diet: Lizards of the genus Callisaurus feed on a variety of prey, from insects, such as moths, ants and bees, to spiders and other smaller lizards. The diet occasionally includes vegetation, such as spring buds and flowers.

Reproduction: In summer, zebra-tailed lizards typically lay two to eight eggs, which hatch from July to November, but more than one clutch can be laid during a season. Eggs are laid, presumably, in friable, sandy soil. Being a prey species for many animals, including birds, other lizards, and mammals, they have a fairly high reproductive rate.

Status: Listed as Least Concern in view of its wide distribution, presumed large population, and because it is unlikely to be declining fast enough to qualify for listing in a more threatened category.

Taxonomy: