Description: Sceloporus virgatus has an average body mass of 0.330 oz. and an average body length of 1.90 inches. The striped plateau lizard has a pair of whiteish-yellow stripes on the dorsolateral sides of its body. Hence, the lizard gets its common name from its physical description of stripes, creating the "striped plateau lizard." In females, these stripes tend to appear more as a pale brown. Between the stripes, the body of the striped plateau lizard is colored gray, brown, or tan. This area is also delineated by two vertical rows of lightly shaded spots with dark edges. These spots are slightly difficult to see as they often appear faint and mostly dark in color without white spots in the center. There is another lightly shaded, lateral stripe located low on each side of the lizard, going from the neck to the groin area. The area between the dorsolateral and lateral stripes also tends to be darker than the mid-dorsal area of the body. The ventral underside of the striped plateau lizard, particularly the belly area, is a solid cream in color, with no pattern. However, near the throat, there is a small, faint green or pale blue spot ventrally on the adult lizards.

These animals are sexually dimorphic and there are many differences between males and females. For instance, the colored spots on the throat become bordered with orange or the orange color replaces any faint green or pale blue coloration in reproductive females. The chests of the striped plateau lizards also have a few black spots. Moreover, scales run in rows on the dorsal side of the bodies, in particular, diagonally, upward, and back to the rear side. The lizards also have pores, and for the scales that are located where the pores are, they are notched posteriorly. These scales and pores are most noticeable in male striped plateau lizards. Males are also smaller in size than females, measuring to less than .4 inches in length. In addition, they have enlarged post-anal scales and swollen tail bases. In comparison to the female striped plateau lizards, the dorsal spotting on males tends to be less distinct, but the striping, the throat patches, and the body color are more vivid and clear.

Habitat: The striped plateau lizard is primarily a terrestrial and montane species since they reside on land, particularly in the temperate forest and in the moist savanna. S. virgatus is most abundantly found in mixed pine and oak woods or in wooded canyons and ravines. It ranges upward into pine forests and downward in oak woodlands located along streams. As the images to the right depict, the striped plateau lizard tends to favor hard and rough surfaces on the ground like rocks, leaf litter, logs, and scattered grasses. They can also be found near sandy, rocky intermittent streams.

Range: Sceloporus virgatus is widely found in Southwestern United States in the geographical range between extreme southeastern Arizona and extreme southwestern New Mexico, including Chiricahua, Peloncillo, Guadalupe, and Animas mountains. This geographical range also extends south to the Sierra Madre Occidental and to southern Chihuahua in Mexico.

Found in these States: AZ | NM

Diet: S. virgatusi are invertivores in the sense that they eat insects and other arthropods. Their preferred method of catching prey is via a sudden ambush technique. As these lizards are rather sedentary, this is also called a sit-and-wait method, in which S. virgatus sits and waits for a prey to come up and then ambushes the prey.

Reproduction: The striped plateau lizard sexually reproduces and are oviparous animals, indicating that the striped plateau lizard lays eggs and that their offspring hatch from the eggs after coming out of the mothers' bodies. The brood size is 0.291, and the striped plateau lizard produces around one litter per year. When females mature at around 2.0 inches in body length, they typically lay a clutch consisting between three and eighteen eggs. This laying of eggs occurs at the beginning of the summer rainy season, which takes place from late June until late July. The size of the clutches are associated with the precipitation and temperature over the past year. Then, hatchlings appear in late August and September, being around 0.83 to 0.87 inches in body length.

The population of S. virgatus is currently stable at around 100,000 individuals, though it is severely fragmented as the number of mature individuals present is continuing to decline. This can lead to an over-abundance of younger striped plateau lizards in the population, which can contribute to slower population growth in the future and be detrimental to the presence of the species as a whole.

Status: Listed as Least Concern in view of the apparently relatively stable extent of occurrence, area of occupancy, number of subpopulations, and population size.

Taxonomy: