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Holbrookia elegans

Bocourt, 1874

Elegant Earless Lizard

G5Secure Found in 8 roadless areas NatureServe Explorer →
G5SecureGlobal Rank
Least concernIUCN
LowThreat Impact
Identity
Unique IDELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.768143
Element CodeARACF08040
Record TypeSPECIES
ClassificationSpecies
Classification StatusStandard
Name CategoryVertebrate Animal
IUCNLeast concern
Endemicoccurs (regularly, as a native taxon) in multiple nations
KingdomAnimalia
PhylumCraniata
ClassReptilia
OrderSquamata
FamilyPhrynosomatidae
GenusHolbrookia
Concept Reference
Crother, B. I., J. Boundy, J. A. Campbell, K. de Quieroz, D. Frost, D. M. Green, R. Highton, J. B. Iverson, R. W. McDiarmid, P. A. Meylan, T. W. Reeder, M. E. Seidel, J. W. Sites, Jr., S. G. Tilley, and D. B. Wake. 2003. Scientific and standard English names of amphibians and reptiles of North America north of Mexico: update. Herpetological Review 34:198-203.
Taxonomic Comments
Holbrookia elegans formerly was included in H. maculata. Mulcahy et al. (2022) corroborates the findings of Blaine (2008) of substantial mtDNA sequence divergence between H. e. thermophila and H. e. elegans, although a large sampling gap remains, and that H. m. pulchra (misspelled "pulcra" by Blaine) is not separate from H. e. thermophila, as proposed previously by Duellman (1955) (Nicholson 2025).
Conservation Status
Review Date2005-09-09
Change Date2005-02-09
Edition Date2005-09-09
Edition AuthorsHammerson, G.
Threat ImpactLow
Range Extent20,000-2,500,000 square km (about 8000-1,000,000 square miles)
Number of Occurrences21 - 300
Range Extent Comments
The range includes south-central Arizona and Sonora and Sinaloa in western Mexico (see Wilgenbusch and de Queiroz 2000 and Crother et al. 2003).
Threat Impact Comments
No major threats have been identified.
Ecology & Habitat

Habitat

Habitats include desert (e.g., rocky foothills and slopes of Arizona upland desert between 1,000 and 4,000 feet), thornscrub, and oak-grass habitats above 4,000 feet (Lowe 1964).
Terrestrial Habitats
Woodland - HardwoodShrubland/chaparralDesert
Other Nations (1)
United StatesNNR
ProvinceRankNative
ArizonaS3Yes
Roadless Areas (8)
Arizona (7)
AreaForestAcres
Cdo WsaCoronado National Forest1,955
Happy ValleyCoronado National Forest7,972
Lower RinconCoronado National Forest3,278
Oracle RoadlessCoronado National Forest22,365
Santa RitaCoronado National Forest6,078
TumacacoriCoronado National Forest44,594
WhetstoneCoronado National Forest20,728
New Mexico (1)
AreaForestAcres
Peloncillo (NM)Coronado National Forest43,339
References (14)
  1. Adest, G. A. 1978. The relations of the sand lizards Uma, Callisaurus and Holbrookia: An electrophoretic study. Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of California, Los Angeles. xiii + 118 p.
  2. Axtell, R. A. 1998. <i>Holbrookia lacerata</i>. Interpretive Atlas of Texas Lizards 20:1–11.
  3. Blaine, R. A. 2008. Biogeography of the North American southwest sand lizards. PhD Dissertation, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri. 202 pp.
  4. Conant, R., and J. T. Collins. 1998. A field guide to reptiles and amphibians: eastern and central North America. Third edition, expanded. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, Massachusetts. 616 pp.
  5. Crother, B. I. (editor). 2008. Scientific and standard English names of amphibians and reptiles of North America north of Mexico, with comments regarding confidence in our understanding. Sixth edition. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles Herpetological Circular 37:1-84. Online with updates at: http://www.ssarherps.org/pages/comm_names/Index.php
  6. Crother, B. I. (editor). 2012. Scientific and standard English names of amphibians and reptiles of North America north of Mexico, with comments regarding confidence in our understanding. 7th edition. SSAR Herpetological Circular 39:1-92.
  7. Crother, B. I. (editor). 2017. Scientific and standard English names of amphibians and reptiles of North America north of Mexico, with comments regarding confidence in our understanding. 8th edition. SSAR Herpetological Circular 43:1-104. [Updates in SSAR North American Species Names Database at: https://ssarherps.org/cndb]
  8. Crother, B. I., J. Boundy, J. A. Campbell, K. de Quieroz, D. Frost, D. M. Green, R. Highton, J. B. Iverson, R. W. McDiarmid, P. A. Meylan, T. W. Reeder, M. E. Seidel, J. W. Sites, Jr., S. G. Tilley, and D. B. Wake. 2003. Scientific and standard English names of amphibians and reptiles of North America north of Mexico: update. Herpetological Review 34:198-203.
  9. Duellman, W. E. 1955. Notes on amphibians and reptiles from Arizona. Occasional Papers Of The Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan, Number 569:1-18.
  10. Lowe, C. H., editor. 1964. The vertebrates of Arizona with major section on Arizona habitats. Univ. Arizona Press, Tucson. 270 pp.
  11. Mulcahy, D. G., R. Ibáñez, C. A. Jaramillo, A. J. Crawford, J. M. Ray, S. W. Gotte, J. F. Jacobs, A. H. Wynn, G. P. Gonzalez-Porter, R. W. McDiarmid, R. I. Crombie, G. R. Zug, and K. de Queiroz. 2022. DNA barcoding of the National Museum of Natural History reptile tissue holdings raises concerns about the use of natural history collections and the responsibilities of scientists in the molecular age. PLoS ONE 17(3:e0264930. https://doi.org/ 10.1371/journal.pone.0264930
  12. Nicholson, K. E. (ed.). 2025. Scientific and Standard English Names of Amphibians and Reptiles of North America North of Mexico, with Comments Regarding Confidence in Our Understanding. Ninth Edition. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles. 87pp. Online database available at: https://cnah.org/SSARnames.aspx
  13. Smith, H. M. 1946. Handbook of lizards. Lizards of the United States and Canada. Cornell univ. Press, Ithaca. xxi + 557 pp.
  14. Wilgenbusch, J., and K. de Queiroz. 2000. Phylogenetic relationships among the phrynosomatid sand lizards inferred from mitochondrial DNA sequences generated by heterogeneous evolutionary processes. Systematic Biology 49:592-612.