HARMLESSLY TOXUNGENIC: The Texas Horned Lizard is distinctive. The harmless so-called “horny toad” is flat-bodied yet formidable in appearance. The Texas Horned Lizard is characterized by four limbs, an ear opening on each side of the head, extremely rough, raised scales on its body, and large spines projecting out from the back of the head. The general color of this lizard ranges from yellowish brown to reddish brown. There is a dark brown blotch on each side of the neck and a series of dark spots on each side of the back separated by a yellow or white line. The belly is white with a few small gray spots. External sexual differences are few, but females grow slightly larger than males.
Adults normally 64-100 mm (2½-4 inches) in TL. Females grow larger than males. The largest specimen from
Kansas is a female (FHSM 7469) from Stevens County with a SVL of 90 mm and a TL of 123 mm (4½ inches) collected by Travis W. Taggart and Curtis J. Schmidt on 31 May 2002. The maximum length throughout the range is 181 mm (71⁄8 inches) (Powell et al., 2016).
The Texas Horned Lizard is locally abundant across much of Kansas. It avoids most of the High Plains north of the Arkansas River basin, northeast Kansas east and north of the Blue and Kansas rivers. Areas of peak abundance include the Smoky Hills (between the Dakota Sandstone and the Fort Hays Limestone), the Flint Hills south of Pottawatomie County, the Cross Timbers, the Red Hills, and the High Plains south of the Kansas River.
Range-wide the Texas Horned Lizard is found from north-central Kansas to southeast Arizona, southeast (east of the Sierra Madre Occidental) to northern Veracruz, Mexico, then along the Gulf of Mexico coast to southeast Texas and north to southwest Missouri and east central Kansas. There many reports of this species from elsewhere in the United States that likely represent released or escaped pets.
The Texas Horned Lizard generally inhabits dry, flat areas with sandy, loamy, or rocky surfaces and little vegetation. It is active from April to September and is strictly diurnal, spending the day basking in the sun, foraging for food, or hiding just below the soil surface. Its coloration makes it difficult to observe. Little is known of its daily cycle, but its temperature preference may be higher than that of many other lizards. Heinrich and Kaufman (1985) observed these lizards active between 16 May and 6 July along gravel trails and in upland tall-grass prairie habitat on the Konza Prairie near Manhattan.
Texas Horned Lizards are toxungenic (toxin delivered to body surface without accompanying wound). Texas Horned Lizards produce toxins that renders them distasteful to canids (dogs). Their antipredator toxins are carried in the circulating blood and can be purposefully squirted from the rear corner of each eye socket in response to a predation attempt (Sherbrooke and Middendorf, 2004). Under captive conditions, Collins (1993) observed coyotes bite a specimen of this lizard, drawing blood from the head and licking the blood before consuming the lizard. The coyotes showed no ill effects. Taggart (1992) found one of these lizards in Russell County on 4 July at an air temperature of 97°F; it squirted blood on him when he picked it up.The Texas Horned Lizard retreats to shade to escape the heat during mid-day and may burrow into loose soil at night. When a warm Texas Horned Lizard is picked up, it may emit a stream of blood from the back of the eyes. This significance of this behavior is not understood.
Although this lizard is well known to many people and has an extensive range, few observations on its breeding habits have been made in Kansas. Males apparently emerge from winter inactivity earlier than females, and mating probably occurs no earlier than May or June. Courtship is unknown. Each female probably lays a single clutch of eggs per season, with an average of 23 eggs (Fitch, 1985), in a nest dug in loose soil or under rocks. Burt and Hoyle (1934) recorded a female from Cowley County that laid seven eggs in early June. Incubation requires one to two months.
Burt and Hoyle (1935) reported a newly-captured female Texas Horned Lizard from Cowley county, Kansas, that laid seven yellowish eggs while it was kept in a sunny location at a window on 5-6 June 1933. The eggs hatch from mid-July through August.
Ants make up the major part of this lizard's diet, but other small insects and spiders are also eaten. This lizard is active by day and spends most of its time at ground level searching out small invertebrate prey (particularly Harvester Ants [Pogonomyrmex spp.]). Hartman (1906) examined a specimen that had consumed a great number of small beetles.
The Texas Horned Lizard was first reported from Kansas by Hallowell (1857) and included no more specific locality than Kansas. The earliest specimens (United States National Museum [USNM 14428, 293187]) were collected on 4 September 1885 in "southern Kansas" (no other data).
Harlan (1825) described the Texas Horned Lizard from "the great plains east of the Rocky Mountains". Smith and Taylor (1950) subsequently restricted the type locality to Fort Riley, Geary County, Kansas. Restricted type localities carry no weight in nomenclatural priority.
Over the past 40 years, populations of Texas Horned Lizards in Texas have dramatically declined. Although the culprit leading to the decline has yet to be positively identified, a leading theory correlates their disappearance to the spread of the introduced Red Fire Ant (Solenopsis invicta) and the concomitant reduction of the the native ants due to the pesticides used to control Red Fire Ants. The Red Fire Ant was introduced accidentally into the United States around the 1930s and has steadily spread northward. Red Fire Ants are not established within Kansas and Kansas populations of Phrynosoma cornutum are stable.Platt (1985, 1998) reported the absence of Texas Horned Lizards during his studies of Harvey County populations over 40+ years, despite there being a historical record for the area. This pattern of disappearance is similar to that shown by the Lesser Earless Lizard, albeit somewhat delayed. Further survey work is needed especially in those areas specimens were not found during this study. The continued monitoring of this species should also be a priority.
Harlan (1825) makes the following statement regarding the Texas Horned Lizard in his original description "...is elegantly proportioned; its beauty indeed is such as to attract the attention and excite the admiration of the most superficial observer. I consider it unnecessary to enter into any further detail, in order to discriminate this species from that to which it is most nearly allied..."
Finger et al. (2022) conducted a range-wide systematic assessment of the Texas Horned Lizard, concluding that the strong evidence of admixture, gene flow, and mtDNA introgression among populations suggests that P. cornutum should be considered a single widespread species.
Although the Texas Horned Lizard is widespread in Kansas, Platt et al. (1974) recommended that it be protected by law to prevent commercial exploitation by the pet trade. Texas Horned Lizards are difficult to maintain in captivity, and most captive individuals die from improper care.
Based on a captive specimen, Snider and Bowler (1992) reported a maximum longevity for this lizard of one year, one month, and 24 days.
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Taggart, Travis W. 2016. Spring 2016 KHS field trip to Clark County was a soggy success. Collinsorum 5(2-3):2-3.
Taggart, Travis W. 2016. Results of the KHS ‘Fall’ field trip to Barber County. Collinsorum 5(2-3):6-7.
Taggart, Travis W. and J. Daren Riedle. 2017. A Pocket Guide to
Kansas Amphibians,
Turtles and Lizards. Great Plains Nature Center, Wichita, Kansas. 69 pp.
Crother, Brian 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. Eighth edition. Herpetological Circulars (43):1-102.
Mardis, Dexter R. 2017. Results from three Herpetofaunal tallies at Wichita State University’s Youngmeyer Ranch in Northwestern
Elk County. Collinsorum 6(1):8-10.
Taggart, Travis W. 2017. Results of the 2017 KHS Spring Field Trip to Elk County, Kansas. Collinsorum 6(2-3):6-8.
Schmidt, Curtis J. 2017. Herp Count: Southeast Ellis County. Collinsorum 6(2-3):9.
Houck, Mike. 2018. Herp Count: Fort Riley Military Installation. Collinsorum 7(1):17.
Powell, Robert, Joseph T Collins, and Errol D Hooper Jr. 2019. Key to the Herpetofauna of the Continental United States and Canada. Third Edition. Univ Press of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. 192 pp.
Williams, Dean A., Nathan D. Rains, and Amanda M. Hale. 2019. Population genetic structure of Texas Horned Lizards: Implications for reintroduction and captive breeding. PeerJ 7(e7746):28.
Hughes, D. F., Walter E. Meshaka, Jr., C. Loeb, and Joseph H. K. Pechmann. 2019. Latitudinal variation in life history reveals a reproductive advantage in the Texas Horned Lizard, Phrynosoma cornutum. Copeia 107(4):736–747.
Hughes, D. F., Walter E. Meshaka, Jr., C. Loeb, and Joseph H. K. Pechmann. 2019. Latitudinal variation in life history reveals a reproductive advantage in the Texas Horned Lizard, Phrynosoma cornutum. Copeia 107(4):736–747.
Daniel, Richard E. and Brian S. Edmond. 2020. Atlas of Missouri Amphibians and Reptiles for 2019. Privately printed, Columbia, Missouri. 86 pp.
Riedle, J. Daren. 2020. Revisiting Kansas Herpetological Society field trip and Herp Count data:
Distributional patterns and trend data of Kansas amphibians and reptiles. Collinsorum 9(1):7-16.
Taggart, Travis W and Sarah L Taggart. 2021. Herp Count: Comanche County: KHS-2020-15. Collinsorum 9(3):13-14.
Taggart, Meg, Amelia Jaeger, Jesse J. Taggart, and Travis W. Taggart. 2021. Herp Count: Ellis County: KHS-2020-21. Collinsorum 9(3):14.
Taggart, Travis W. 2021. Herp Count: Russell County: KHS-2020-24. Collinsorum 9(3):14-15.
Taggart, Travis W., Dan Fogell, and Christopher Visser. 2021. Herp Count: Russell County: KHS-2020-25. Collinsorum 9(3):15.
Locklear, James H. 2021. The Sandsage Prairie ecological system: Biodiversity hotspot for the Great Plains. Natural Areas Journal 41(1):64-74.
Kohler, Gunther. 2021. Taxonomy of Horned Lizards, genus Phrynosoma (Squamata,
Phrynosomatidae). Taxonomy 2021(1):83–115.
Finger, Nicholas, Keaka Farleigh, Jason T. Bracken, Adam D. Leache, Olivier Francois, Ziheng Yang, Tomas Flouri, Tristan Charran, Tereza Jezkova, Dean A. Williams, and Christopher Blair. 2022. Genome-scale data reveal deep lineage divergence and a complex demographic history in the Texas Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma cornutum) throughout the southwestern and central United States. Genome Biology and Evolution 14(1):24.
Russell, Elisabeth. 2023. Habitat associations and fine-scale movements of the Red-spotted Toad (Anaxyrus punctatus) in Kansas and the efficacy of remote telemetry for monitoring small-scale movements. Thesis. Fort Hays State University, Hays, Kansas. 81 pp.
Hubbs, Brian. 2024. Geographic distribution: Phrynosoma cornutum. Herpetological Review 55(1):42.
Rhoads, Dustin. 2024. Rehoming Texas. Help the horned lizard make a comeback. Texas Gardener 2024(January/February):32-35.