Description: 2 to 2 3/4 inches snout to vent. A slim bodied lizard with a long slender tail, a pointed snout, and large symmetrical head plates. Scales on the back are small and granular, and scales on the tail are keeled. The back is unspotted and black, dark brown, or grayish with 6 or fewer pale yellow or whitish stripes. The throat and often the chest are orange, turning brighter orange during breeding season. The belly is pale blue-gray or whitish with large, smooth, rectangular scales in 8 lengthwise rows. The tail color fades to gray in adults. The tail can reach up to two times the length of the body. The tail is blue in juveniles.

Habitat: Semi-arid brushy areas typically with loose soil and rocks, including washes, streamsides, rocky hillsides, and coastal chaparral.

Range: In California, this subspecies ranges from the Santa Ana River in Orange County, and near Colton in San Bernardino County, west of the Peninsular ranges, south almost to the cape region of the Baja Peninsula. A second subspecies occurs from there to the southernmost edge of Baja California.

Found in these States: CA

Diet: Small invertebrates, especially spiders, scorpions, centipedes, and termites, and small lizards.

Reproduction: Eggs are laid June to July, hatching in about 2 months.

Status: Populations of this lizard are fragmented. It inhabits only about 25 percent of its former range. Much of the habitat it needs for survival has been destroyed by development.

Taxonomy: