Chuckawalla

Sauromalus ater, (Dumeril)

Colouration: Mature individuals are practically uniform in colour, being dull brown, olive or black above; abdomen rusty red, dotted with black.
Dimensions: The measurements given are from a specimen taken a few miles south of Phoenix, Arizona:
Distribution: Desert regions of the southwestern United States--southern Nevada and Utah, Arizona, eastern California, Lower California, and northern Sonora, Mexico.
Habits: Little is known about the habits of the Chuckawalla or "Chuck-walla." It inhabits rocky places in the deserts.

The largest lizard of the southwestern desert region, with the exception of the Gila Monster (Heloderma). Body very broad; head proportionately large. Both pairs of limbs are stubby; the tail is thick, flattened (horizontally) and but slightly longer than the body.

The young are usually olive, marbled or spotted with black on the back; some are banded with reddish, this intermixed with yellow dots. The pattern is more pronounced on the tail.

Total Length. . . . . 12 inches.

Length of Tail. . . . . 5 inches.

Width of Body. . . . . 3 inches.

Width of Tail, at base. . . . . 1 1/8 inches.

Width of Head. . . . . 1 5/8 inches.

The single living specimen in the writer's collection lived but a few months. When sleeping it was dark brown, but as the sun shone upon the sand of its cage and it became more active the body hue grew much lighter--almost yellow. This lizard had a very poor appetite. It occasionally nibbled at tender leaves of lettuce and celery. Dissection of the stomachs of preserved specimens shows the Chuckawalla to be quite herbivorous.

The Genus Crotaphytus: The three species are confined to the southern United States and northern Mexico; they are of moderate size.

Body stout, head large; tail very long, cylindrical and slender. Above and beneath, the scales are fine and granular. Top of the head covered with small, granular scales--larger than those of the body; scalation of the tail in narrow rings. Ear drum large; a fold of skin on the throat.

Key to the Species

I. Head very large; body short and stout.

Pale, with numerous white or yellow dots; a double black collar on neck.

COLLARED LIZARD, Crotaphytus collaris.

Pale, with a yellow or white net-work (reticulate pattern) on body. Faint indications of a double black collar on neck. . . . No white dots on body.

RETICULATED LIZARD, Crotaphytus reticulatus.

II. Head of moderate size; body more elongated.

Yellowish, with large, rounded, dark blotches; spaces spaces between the blotches dotted with red or yellow.

LEOPARD LIZARD, Crotaphytus wislizenii.

Detailed descriptions: