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Reptilia    Squamata (part-other lizards)    Phrynosomatidae  

Common Lesser Earless Lizard
Holbrookia maculata Girard, 1851
hole-BROOK-ee-uh — mak-yoo-LAH-tuh

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 Recent findings of Mulcahy et al. (2020, PLoS One 17: e0264930) corroborate Blaine’s (2008, Ph.D. dissertation, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri) finding of three non-overlapping mtDNA haplotype clades, which correspond to the first three subspecies recognized here and in the 8th edition of this list except that H. m. ruthveni is nested within H. m. flavilenta. (de Queiroz, Kevin and Lauren M. Chan. 2025. Squamata (excluding snakes) – Lizards. Pages 23-37 in Kirsten E. Nicholson (Editor), Scientific and Standard English Names of Amphibians and Reptiles of North America North of Mexico, with Comments Regarding Confidence in Our Understanding, 9th Edition. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Lawrence, Kansas. 87 pp.)

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2025.02.04.10.45.01)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.35 MB

Province/State Distribution:
United States: Arizona Colorado Kansas Nebraska New Mexico Oklahoma South Dakota Texas Utah Wyoming

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for its spotted appearance.
Holbrookia — Eponym in honor of John Edwards Holbrook (1796–1871), an American naturalist and herpetologist who made significant contributions to the study of reptiles and amphibians in North America.
maculata — From Latin: maculatus / maculata — “spotted” or “stained”; Derived from macula meaning “spot” or “blemish”

First instance(s) of published English names:
Prairie Lizard (Holbrookia maculata maculata: Yarrow, Henry C. 1876. List of Skeletons and Crania in the Section of Comparative Anatomy of the United States Army Medical Museum for use during the International Exhibition of 1876 in Connection with the Representation of the Medical Department U.S. Army. Army Medical Museum, Washington, D. C. pp.); Mexican Spotted Lizard (Holbrookia maculata approximans: 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); Holbrook's Lizard (Holbrookia maculata maculata: 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); Western Earless Lizard (Holbrookia maculata approximans: 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); Texas Spotted Lizard (Holbrookia maculata: Brown, Arthur, E. 1902. Report of the Board of Directors. Pages 5-22 in Thirtieth Annual Report of the Board of Directors of the Zoological Society of Philadelphia. Allen, Lane, and Scott, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. pp.); Western Earless Lizard (Holbrookia maculata approimans: 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.); Spotted Sand Swift (Holbrookia maculata maculata: Brennan, Lawrence A. 1934. A check list of the amphibians and reptiles of Ellis County, Kansas. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science 37():189-191); Earless Lizard (Holbrookia maculata: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Huachuca Earless Lizard (Holbrookia maculata approximans: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Northern Earless Lizard (Holbrookia maculata maculata: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Bleached Earless Lizard (Holbrookia maculata ruthveni: 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:
1851 Girard, Charles. On a new American Saurian Reptile. Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science 4:200-202
1890 Stejneger, Leonhard H. Part V. - Annotated list of reptiles and batrachians collected by Dr. C. Hart Merriam and Vernon Bailey on the San Francisco Mountain Plateau and Desert of the Little Colorado, Arizona, with descriptions of new species. North American Fauna 3(3):103-118
1890 Merriam, C. Hart. Part I. - General results of a biological survey of the San Francisco Mountain Region in Arizona, with special reference to the distribution of species. North American Fauna 3(3):5-34
1935 Smith, Hobart M. Notes on some Mexican lizards of the genus Holbrookia, with a description of a new species. University of Kansas Science Bulletin 22(8):185-201
1954 Axtell, Ralph W. The systematic relationships of certain lizards in two species groups of the genus Holbrookia. Thesis. University of Texas, Austin. pp.
1958 Axtell, Ralph W. A monographic revision of the Iguanid genus Holbrookia. Dissertation. University of Texas, Austin. pp.
1958 Norris, Kenneth Stafford. The evolution and systematics of the iguanid genus Uma and its relation to the evolution of other North American desert reptiles. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 114(3):247-326
1963 Clarke, Robert F. The comparative behavior of the iguanid lizards, Callisaurus, Cophosaurus, and Holbrookia. Dissertation. University of Oklahoma, Norman. 136pp.
1965 Clarke, Robert F. An ethological study of the iguanid genera Callisaurus, Cophosaurus, and Holbrookia. Emporia State Research Studies 13(4):1-66
1989 de Queiroz, Kevin. Morphological and biochemical evolution in the sand lizards. Dissertation. University of California, Berkeley. 491pp.
1993 Wiens, John J. Phylogenetic relationships of phrynosomatid lizards and monophyly of the Sceloporus group. Copeia 1993(2):287-299
2008 Blaine, Russell A. Biogeography of the North American Southwest sand lizards. Dissertation. Washington University, Saint Louis, Missouri. pp.
2013 Lambert, Shea M. and John J. Wiens. Evolution of viviparity: A phylogenetic test of the cold-climate hypothesis in Phrynosomatid lizards. Evolution 67(9):2614–2630

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Friday 05 December 2025 15:53 CT