THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Squamata (part)    Agamidae  

Butterfly Lizard
Leiolepis belliana (Hardwicke and Gray, 1827)

Current SSAR Comments:
Native to southeastern Asia. It was introduced via the pet trade ca. 1992 and is established in Miami, Miami-Dade County, Florida (Krysko and Enge, 2005,. Florida Scientist 68: 247–249; Cobb et al., 2016, Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History 54: 131–137; Enge and Krysko, 2019, Leiolepis belliana belliana. Pages 354–355 in Krysko et al. (Editors) Amphibians and Reptiles of Florida. University Press of Florida, Gainesville, Florida). Cobb et al., 2016, op. cit. showed that Florida samples are closely related to lizards from Thailand in their native range. The authority has been updated from (Gray, 1827) in the prior list (Kraus and Krysko, 2017, Alien species. Pages 92–102 in Brian I. Crother (Editor). Herpetological Circulars (43): 102) to (Hardwicke and Gray, 1827).

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2024.07.01.16.21.41)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.01 MB

First instance(s) of published English names:
No historic English names have been assigned to this taxon yet.

Taxon Links:

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

Pertinent LIterature:
1827 Hardwicke, Thomas and Gray, John E. A synopsis of the species of saurian reptiles, collected in India by Major-General Hardwicke. Zoological Journal, London 3(22):213-229
2005 Krysko, Kenneth L. and Kevin M. Enge. A new non-native lizard in Florida, the Butterfly Lizard, Leiolepis belliana (Sauria: Agamidae). Florida Scientist 68(4):247-249
2016 Cobb, Nicole R., Kenneth L. Krysko, and Jan-Michael Archer. Genetic confirmation of two nonnative species of butterfly lizards (Leiolepidae; Leiolepis) with established populations in Florida, USA. Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History 54(8):131–137
2017 Crother, Brian I. (editor) 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

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Wednesday 15 January 2025 20:27 CT