Crotaphytus is a genus of lizards, commonly known as collared lizards, in the family Crotaphytidae. Member species are small to medium-sized predators indigenous to the American southwest, Baja peninsula, and Mexico. Including the tail, they can be as small as or as long as , and are characterized by distinct bands of black or brown around the neck, to which their common names refer.

Species

thumb|A collared lizard posing on a rock in Colorado

The following species and subspecies are recognized as being valid.

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! Image !! Scientific name !! Common name !! Distribution

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|120px||Crotaphytus antiquus ||venerable collared lizard|| Sierra San Lorenzo, Sierra Texas, and Sierra Solis in extreme southwestern Coahuila state, Mexico

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|120px||Crotaphytus bicinctores ||Great Basin collared lizard or desert collared lizard || Western United States

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|120px||Crotaphytus collaris ||common collared lizard||Mexico and the south-central United States (Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas)

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| ||Crotaphytus dickersonae ||Sonoran collared lizard|| Mexico

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| ||Crotaphytus grismeri ||Grismer's collared lizard||Baja California, Mexico

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| ||Crotaphytus insularis ||eastern collared lizard|| Mexico

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|120px||Crotaphytus nebrius ||Sonoran collared lizard || U.S. state of Arizona and the Mexican state of Sonora

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|120px||Crotaphytus reticulatus ||reticulated collared lizard ||US state of Texas, Mexico (Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas)

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|120px||Crotaphytus vestigium ||Baja California collared lizard||California (United States) and Baja California (Mexico)

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Nota bene: A binomial authority in parentheses or a trinomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species or subspecies was originally described in a genus other than Crotaphytus.

Symbol

In 1969, Oklahoma designated its first state reptile when it chose the collared lizard.

References

;Citations

;Bibliography

  • Holbrook JE (1842). North American Herpetology; or, A Description of the Reptiles Inhabiting the United States. Vol. II. (Second edition). Philadelphia: J. Dobson. 142 pp. (Crotaphytus, new genus, p. 79).
  • Photos of genus members