THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Squamata (part)    Xantusiidae  

Granite Night Lizard
Xantusia henshawi Stejneger, 1893
zan-TOO-see-ah — HEN-shaw-eye

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 There are no current SSAR comments for this taxon.

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2023.04.10.13.42.07)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.07 MB

Province/State Distribution:
USA: California

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named in honor of a U.S. biologist and army surgeon.
Xantusia — Named in honor of John Xantus de Vesey (1825–1894), a Hungarian-born zoologist and collector who worked in California and Mexico. Many reptiles and other animals bear his name.
henshawi — A patronym honoring Henry W. Henshaw (1850–1930), an American ornithologist and ethnologist associated with the U.S. Biological Survey.

First instance(s) of published English names:
Henshaw's Night Lizard (Xantusia henshawi: 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); Granite Night Lizard (Xantusia henshawi: 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:
1893 Stejneger, Leonhard H. Diagnosis of a new Californian lizard. Proceedings of the United States National Museum 16:467
1975 Stewart, Glenn R. and Ronald S. Daniel. Microornamentation of lizard scales: Some variations and taxonomic correlations. Herpetologica 31(1):117-130
1976 Lee, Julian C. Xantusia henshawi. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (189):1-2
1986 Crother, Brian I., Michael M. Miyamoto, and William F. Presch. Phylogeny and biogeography of the lizard family Xantusiidae. Systematic Zoology 35(1):37-45
2001 Lovich, Robert. Phylogeography of the night lizard, Xantusia henshawi, in southern California: Evolution across fault zones. Herpetologica 57(4):470-487
2013 Noonan, Brice P., Jennifer B. Pramuk, Robert L. Bezy, Elizabeth A. Sinclair, Kevin de Queiroz, and Jack W. Sites, Jr. Phylogenetic relationships within the lizard clade Xantusiidae: Using trees and divergence times to address evolutionary questions at multiple levels Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 69(2013):109-122

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Wednesday 09 July 2025 12:56 CT