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Sceloporus occidentalis tailoryi
Western fence lizards measure a total length of about 21 cm. They are brown to black in color (the brown may be sandy or greenish) and have black stripes on their backs, but their most distinguishing characteristic is their bright blue bellies. The ventral sides of the limbs are yellow.These lizards also have blue patches on their throats. This bright coloration is faint or absent in both females and juveniles. The scales of S. occidentalis are sharply keeled. They do push-ups as intimidating display.
Rocks in Olmsted Point, Tioga Rd., CA. South of Lake Tahoe.
Spotted on Sep 18, 2014
Submitted on Dec 24, 2014
5 Comments
Many thanks Ashley, Jellis, Daniel for the ID. I will add Sceloporus occidentalis as species ;-)
I'm leaning like AshleyT more on the Sierra Fence Lizard - Sceloporus occidentalis taylori due to the longer spiny scales.
What I do when it becomes a tight decision like that is I contact the guys at CaliforniaHerps. They know their stuff and most likely get back to you with an answer. You will have to give the best description and photos.
it's a western fence lizard or blue belly
Yep! Sceloporus occidentalis. You're right on the edge of two subspecies, so I would just go off of range to tell them apart. Hopefully you know where you were in relation to the counties on these maps? http://www.californiaherps.com/lizards/p...
http://www.californiaherps.com/lizards/p...