Northern Rosebelly Lizard (Sceloporus variabilis ssp. marmoratus)

29 May 2017
Government Canyon State Natural Area
12861 Galm Road
San Antonio, Béxar County, Texas

Northern Rosebelly Lizard scattered in the leafy underbrush at the juncture where the Wildcat, Far Reaches and Sendero Balcones Trails intersect. Northern Rosebelly Lizard reaches its northernmost range in the lower reaches of the Edwards Plateau (El Llano Estacado), namely Central Texas where San Antonio and Austin are located and extends south through all of South Texas and parts of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas and other states farther south in Mexico hugging the Gulf of México. Its range then extends through most of Central America including Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and ending in Costa Rica. It is a North American spiny lizard if there is one. We observed this specimen at about 1300 feet above sea level. (See the range map and related information at IUCN: http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/198414/0.) The recognized southern subspecies is Southern Rose-bellied Lizard (Sceloporus variabilis ssp. olloporus).