THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Squamata (part)    Xantusiidae  

Desert Night Lizard
Xantusia vigilis Baird, 1859
zan-two-ZEE-uh — vih-JUH-lis

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 There are no current SSAR comments for this taxon.

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2023.04.10.13.42.07)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 1.57 MB

Province/State Distribution:
USA: Arizona California Nevada Utah

First instance(s) of published English names:
Xantus' Lizard (Xantusia vigilis: Cooper, James G. 1869. The fauna of California and its geographical distribution. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 4():61-81); Xantus's Lizard (Xantusia vigilis: Yarrow, Henry C. 1882. Check list of North American Reptilia and Batrachia with catalogue of specimens in U. S. National Museum. Bulletin of the United States National Museum (24):1-249); Desert Night Lizard (Xantusia vigilis: Van Denburgh, John. 1897. The reptiles of the Pacific Coast and Great Basin: An account of the species known to inhabit California, and Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Nevada. Occasional Papers of the California Academy of Sciences 5():9-236); San Lucan Night Lizard (Xantusia gilberti: Van Denburgh, John. 1922. The Reptiles of Western North America: An Account of the Species Known to Inhabit California and Oregon, Washinton, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, British Columbia, Sonora, and Lower California. Volume I. Lizards. California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco. 556pp.); Yucca Night Lizard (Xantusia vigilis: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.);

Taxon Links:

  
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
  
The Reptile Database
  
NatureServe
  
iNaturalist
  
GenBank
  
USGS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

Selected References:
1859 Baird, Spencer F. Description of new genera and species of North American lizards in the museum of the Smithsonian Institution. [1858] Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 10:253-256
1949 Slevin, Joseph Richard. Range extension of Xantusia vigilis. Herpetologica 5:148
1957 Tanner, Wilmer W. A new Xantusia from southeastern Utah. Herpetologica 13(1):5-11
1966 Zweifel, Richard G. and Charles H. Lowe. The ecology of a population of Xantusia vigilis, the desert night lizard. American Museum Novitates 2247:1-57
1975 Stewart, Glenn R. and Ronald S. Daniel. Microornamentation of lizard scales: Some variations and taxonomic correlations. Herpetologica 31(1):117-130
1982 Bezy, Robert L. Xantusia vigilis. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (302):1-4
1986 Crother, Brian I., Michael M. Miyamoto, and William F. Presch. Phylogeny and biogeography of the lizard family Xantusiidae. Systematic Zoology 35(1):37-45
1991 Collins, Joseph T. Viewpoint: A new taxonomic arrangement for some North American amphibins and reptiles Herpetological Review 22(2):42-43
2004 Sinclair, E. A., R. L. Bezy, K. Bolles, J. L. Camarillo R., K. A. Crandall, and Jack W. Sites, Jr. Testing species boundaries in an ancient species complex with deep phylogeographic history: Genus Xantusia (Squamata: Xantusiidae). American Naturalist 164:396-414
2013 Noonan, Brice P., Jennifer B. Pramuk, Robert L. Bezy, Elizabeth A. Sinclair, Kevin de Queiroz, and Jack W. Sites, Jr. Phylogenetic relationships within the lizard clade Xantusiidae: Using trees and divergence times to address evolutionary questions at multiple levels Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 69(2013):109-122
2014 Crother, Brian I. The bold taxonomic hypotheses of Collins (1991): 23 years later. Herpetological Review 45(2):268-272
2017 Bezy, Robert L., Philip C. Rosen, Thomas R. Van Devender, and Erik F. Enderson. Southern distributional limits of the Sonoran Desert herpetofauna along the mainland coast of northwestern Mexico Mesoamerican Herpetology 4(1):138-167

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Tuesday 03 June 2025 14:31 CT