WEC 139
Florida scrub lizard (Sceloporus woodi)
1
Lyn C. Branch and D. Grant Hokit
2
1. This document is Fact Sheet WEC 139, one of a series of the Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation. Florida Cooperative Extension Service.
Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. University of Florida. First published March 2000.
2. Lyn C. Branch, Ph.D., associate professor, and D. Grant Hokit, Ph.D., postdoctoral research associate, Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation,
Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611. Current title and address for Hokit: assistant professor,
Department of Biology, Carroll College, Helena, Montana 59601.
The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer authorized to provide research, educational
information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function without regard to race, color, sex, age, handicap, or national origin.
For information on obtaining other extension publications, contact your county Cooperative Extension Service office. Florida Cooperative
Extension Service/Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences/University of Florida/Christine Taylor Waddill, Dean.
Description
The Florida scrub lizard is a small, gray or
gray-brown lizard with spiny scales (Figure 1).
Adults are about 5 inches in total length. A
prominent characteristic of scrub lizards is a thick
brown stripe that runs down each side of the body
from the neck to the base of the tail. Adult males
have bright turquoise patches on the sides of the belly
and a black throat with small turquoise patches at the
base. Females generally lack the turquoise patches,
but sometimes have faded patches on their bellies.
The fence lizard (Sceloporus undulatus) overlaps
geographically with the scrub lizard in northern
Florida but is easily distinguished from this species
because it lacks the dark stripe.
Figure 1. The Florida scrub lizard Credits: Photograph by
Grant Hokit
Distribution and Habitat
The range of the Florida scrub lizard is restricted
entirely to Florida. These lizards occur in disjunct
populations in central Florida and on the Atlantic
Coast (Figure 2). Populations also once occurred
along the Gulf Coast of Florida in Lee and Collier
counties, but most or all of these populations may
have been extirpated due to increasing development
along the coast. Scrub lizards are habitat specialists
that live in dry upland such as sand pine scrub, oak
scrub and sandhill. They require sunny areas with
large amounts of bare sand. Scrub lizards are most
common in habitats that have been kept open by fire
or other disturbances such as logging of sand pine,
but also may persist for some time at the edges of
more dense scrub.
