Description: Ground color of adult olive brown, contrasting little with dark lines but enhancing visibility of light line on third scale row; young much darker, with distinct middorsal light line that bifurcates indistinctly on head and well-developed dark lines on first and second scale rows; with increase in age middorsal light line usually disappears and dark line on first and second scale rows becomes progressively reduced by invasion of ground color from sides (reduced to zigzag marking or lost in adults); patternless morph common in parts of the range.

Habitat: Northern populations inhabit prairie grassland and sandhills; southern populations occur in creosote bush desert, streamside thickets, pinyon-juniper and pine-oak woodland, fir forests, semidesert and oak shrublands, vacant lots, dumps; soil may be rocky, sandy, or loamy. This is a secretive lizard that is usually found under ground cover.

Range: occurs from south-eastern Utah and southern Colorado through Arizona, New Mexico, and western Texas to Chihuahua in Mexico. It lives in rocky habitat up to elevations of 8,500 feet.

Found in these States: CO | NM | TX | UT |

Diet: Eats mainly insects.

Reproduction: Oviparous. Lays 2 to 7 eggs, May to June; eggs attended by female, hatch in July or August. Eggs have been found under rocks.

Status: Listed as Least Concern in view of the fairly large and probably relatively stable extent of occurrence, area of occupancy, number of subpopulations, and population size. No major threats are known. Reassessment may be warranted if further taxonomic study reveals that this is a multi-species complex.

Taxonomy: