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Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus jarrovii)

[/vc_column_text][gap size=”12px” id=”” class=”” style=””][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”491″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_rounded”][vc_column_text]Adult male Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard. Photo by Robert L. Bezy and Kathryn Bolles[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”1909″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” onclick=”img_link_large”][vc_column_text]Hatchling Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard, Sierra Madre Occidental, Sinaloa. Photo by Jim Rorabaugh[/vc_column_text][gap size=”12px” id=”” class=”” style=””][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”1906″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_rounded” onclick=”img_link_large”][vc_column_text]Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard. Photo by Joanna Knapp[/vc_column_text][gap size=”12px” id=”” class=”” style=””][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”1908″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_rounded” onclick=”img_link_large”][vc_column_text]Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard in a rock crevice, Patagonia Mtns, AZ. Photo by Jim Rorabaugh[/vc_column_text][gap size=”12px” id=”” class=”” style=””][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”1907″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_rounded” onclick=”img_link_large”][vc_column_text]Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard with bifurcated tail, Dragoon Mtns, AZ. Photo by Jim Rorabaugh[/vc_column_text][gap size=”12px” id=”” class=”” style=””][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”1905″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_rounded” onclick=”img_link_large”][vc_column_text]Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard (female), Sierra Aconchi, Sonora. Photo by Jim Rorabaugh[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”1910″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_rounded” onclick=”img_link_large”][vc_column_text]Yarrow’s Spiny Lizards at a winter aggregation site, 2 Jan 2018, about 2440 m on Mount Hopkins, Santa Rita Mtns. Photo by Sue Carnahan[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/6″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]

Description

Any naturalist who has spent time in the Sky Islands, particularly south of Interstate 10, will be familiar with Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus jarrovii).  This moderate-sized (< 106 mm SVL) spiny lizard is sexually dimorphic.  The back of the adult male is brilliantly marked with a light (white, pink, copper, blue or green) spot on each scale on a black background.  The dorsum of the female is gray or brown with scattered dark spots.  Dorsal scales are weakly keeled and the tail and limbs are lightly barred in both sexes.  The top of the head in males and females is usually darker than the back and has various light spots and stripes.  Males and females have a black neck collar of usually 4 scales in width and often with a thin white posterior border.  It is most prominent in males.  The throat and sides of the abdomen are dark blue in males.  In females the throat and abdomen are whitish with a gray wash, particularly on the sides of the abdomen.  Neonates are 25-32 mm SVL (Ballinger 1973) and resemble small females.  Lizards of this species may be nearly black when cold, but the patterns and colors described above manifest as they warm up.  Males have enlarged postanal scales and are sexually mature at > 46 mm SVL.  Females mature at 50-60 mm SVL (Goldberg 1971, Tinkle and Hadley 1973, Degenhardt et al. 1996, Ramirez-Bautista et al. 2002, Schwalbe 2009).  The largest males are larger than the largest females (97 mm SVL).  Male Yarrow’s Spiny Lizards from Miller Canyon, Huachuca Mountains, were 16% larger than the females (Beal et al. 2014), possibly a consequence of faster juvenile male growth rates in this species (Cox et al. 2007, but see Gadsden and Estrada-Rodriguez 2008).

Wiens et al. (1999) restricted the name S. jarrovii to one of five species that had formerly used that name.  As currently recognized, Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard is a member of the Torquata group of Sceloporine lizards and is most closely related to S. lineolateralis (Leaché 2010, Wiens et al. 2010).  The two may intergrade in Durango, Mexico (Webb and Hensley 1959, Weins et al. 1999), and the latter is sometimes considered a subspecies of the former (Martínez-Méndez and Méndez-de la Cruz 2007).  In the Sky Island region, populations of Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard occur on montane islands separated by desert grasslands and scrub.  Genetic analyses show significant differentiation between the Huachuca and Chiricahua mountains (Zamudio and Wieczorek 2000), and push-up displays vary among mountain ranges, particularly east and west of the San Pedro River (Middendorf et al. 2005).  Montane island populations of this species have likely been isolated for hundreds of thousands of years (Kaplan 2013); however, no subspecies are currently recognized.

This is often the most apparent lizard at middle to high elevations in the Sky Islands, the species is easy to approach and relatively easy to capture, and the Sky Islands are a pleasant and convenient place to work. As a result, a large body of literature has been produced on this species.  It is one of, if not the most studied amphibian or reptile in the 100-Mile Circle (see Suggested Reading below).  It has also become a model organism for ecological and behavioral studies and the effects of climate change.

In Arizona, Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard occurs in the most of the Sky Islands from the Pinaleño and Santa Teresa mountains south and west to the Baboquivari/Quinlan, Patagonia, Huachuca, Mule, Chiricahua, and Peloncillo mountains.  The species is apparently absent from the Sierrita, Pajarito-Atascosa, Rincon, and Little Dragoon mountains, but are otherwise widespread in the Arizona Sky Island region (Archie et al. 2006, Brennan and Holycross 2006).  The species has been introduced to the Santa Catalina Mountains.  It was first noted at the General Hitchcock Picnic area in that range in 1996 (Archie et al. 2006) and was found at Lizard Rock, about 1 km away in 2006 (Bonine 2006).  In the Sonora portion of the 100-Mile Circle, Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard is known from the Sierras Los Pinitos, San Antonio, Elenita, Mariquita, and Los Ajos.  Notably, it has not been found in the Sierras Azul, Chivato, or San Jose (Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016).

This is a montane lizard that in the 100-Mile Circle is found in rocky terrain vegetated with oak savanna, oak woodlands, pinyon-juniper-oak woodland, pine-oak, pine, and mixed conifer forests.  It occurs on rock outcrops in openings in spruce-fir forest, as well.  At Rancho Los Fresnos, Sonora, it occurs low on the bajada of the Huachuca Mountains in oak savanna with scattered rock outcrops.  Lizards are often seen on rocks, boulders, talus slopes, and trees.  They are not uncommon on the walls of cabins and other structures in the mountains.  In Miller Canyon, Huachuca Mountains, adult Yarrow’s Spiny Lizards are most often found on large boulders or pine trees, whereas juveniles are found on smaller rocks (Gilbert and Lattanzio 2016). Elevational range in the Circle is about 1220 m at the western base of the Santa Rita Mountains to the top of Mount Graham (3269 m).

This species occupies rocky, forested areas during the warm activity period (April or May to September), then moves to over-wintering sites, often in crevices on south-facing slopes, where they spend the October to April period.  These summer and winter activity areas are not far apart; maximum seasonal movements are typically less than 180 m (Middendorf et al. 2005). Winter aggregations of up to 63 individuals occur in rock crevices (Ballinger 1973, Ruby 1977).  Unlike most lizards in the mountains, Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard can be found active through the winter, and ovulation and fertilization occurs in the over-wintering sites in November and December. Development of the embryos slows or halts until about April, then resumes.  Neonates are born in May to July.  Gestation is about 133-198 days.  A fall reproductive season allows for earlier birth of neonates than if lizards waited until spring emergence to breed.  Early birth is timed with the onset of the summer rainy season and abundant prey, and allows rapid growth and maturation, which is important in the relatively short warm, growing season high in the mountains (Goldberg 1971, Gadsden and Estrada-Rodríguez 2008).  About 60% of neonate females in Cave Creek, Chiricahua Mountains, matured in their first year at an age of five months; however, at 2540 m in the Chiricahuas, no females matured in their first season (Ballinger 1973, 1979).

This lizard is viviparous. Litter size from numerous sites in Mexico ranged from 3 to11.  Females from northern Mexico populations are larger in SVL and litter size, relative to females from southern populations (Ramírez-Bautista et al. 2002).  Litter size was 2-15 in the Chiricahua Mtns (Ballinger 1979). Mean litter size ranged from 3.5 (Moreles, Mexico, Ramírez-Bautista et al. 2002) to 8.4 (Chiricahua Mountains, Ballinger 1979). Older females produce significantly larger litters than first year females.  No more than one litter is produced each season by a female (Ballinger 1973).

The species is territorial, but only males defend territories in summer.  As the fall mating season approaches, males adjust their territories to include as many female activity areas as possible. Then in the September to November period, at the beginning of the breeding season, both males and females defend territories (Ruby 1978, Beale et al. 2014).  In southeastern Arizona, male territories are more than twice the size of female territories, and larger lizards have larger territories than smaller lizards.  Natural food abundance was inversely correlated with territory size.  Average adult male and female home range size was 130 and 40 m² in southeastern Arizona (Simon 1975).  Ruby (1978) found that most lizards defended their entire home range.

Ballinger (1979) found greater Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard densities in a high-elevation (2540 m) population in the Chiricahua Mountains (148-229 lizards/hectare) than in a low elevation (1675 m) population in Cave Creek, Chiricahua Mountains (32–71 lizards/hectare). At Las Piedras Encimadas, Durango, at an elevation similar to Cave Creek, the population varied from 40 to 80 lizards per hectare (Gadsden and Estrada-Rodríguez 2008).

In a comparison of reaction to predators, flight initiation distance decreased with perch height in both Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard and the Striped Plateau Lizard (Sceloporus virgatus), but was shorter in the latter.  Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard fled except when perch height exceeded 2 m, but the Striped Plateau Lizard often stayed in place even at low perch height.  The latter may depend more on crypsis to elude predators (Cooper and Avalos 2010a).  Flight initiation distance, distance fled, and probability of entering a refuge for Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard increased with predator approach speed. However, lizards would habituate to human presence and responded with shorter flight initiation distances than unhabituated lizards (Cooper and Avalos 2010b).  

Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard eats a variety of insects.  In Arizona, ants, wasps, flies, beetles, grasshoppers, and insect larvae are most important in the diet (Ballinger and Ballinger 1979, Simon 1975). In Durango, Mexico, the diet of Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard was dominated by ants in all seasons. Other abundant foods were beetles in summer and winter, and termites in autumn and winter (Gadsden et al. 2011).  In another study in Durango, caterpillars, beetles, and grasshoppers were found to be the most important dietary items (Barbault et al. 1985).  Larger lizards eat larger prey than smaller ones, and females tend to consume larger prey items than males of the same size (Simon 1976, Bursey and Goldberg 1993).

Internal and external parasites have been investigated by Mahrt (1989), Goldberg and Bursey (1992, 1993), Bulté et al. (2009), Halliday et al. (2014), and Blais et al. (2017).

Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard is a species of least concern on the IUCN’s Red List.  With a valid Arizona hunting license, four can be taken per year or held in possession, although it is illegal to collect the species in National Park Service units and other protected areas without a special permit.  This species is likely to be affected by climate change.  Drought and fires in the Sky Islands of southeastern Arizona have devastated much of the high country in the Chiricahua, Huachuca, Pinaleño, Santa Catalina, and other ranges.  Precisely how this species is responding has not been studied; however, Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard can be found in heavily burned areas that are essentially devoid of large trees (pers. obs.).  A 2-3⁰ C predicted rise in temperature due to climate change is expected to adversely affect territory acquisition, social displays, and survivorship in this species (Beal et al. 2014), with associated population decline or extirpation in some areas (Gilbert and Lattanzio 2016).

Suggested Reading:

Archie, J.W., R.L. Bezy, and E.F. Enderson. 2006. Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus jarrovii Cope 1875): Lowe’s line revisited. Sonoran Herpetologist 19(5):50-53.

Ballinger, R. E. 1973. Comparative demography of two viviparous iguanid lizards (Sceloporus jarrovi and Sceloporus poinsetti). Ecology 63:679–687.

Ballinger, R. E. 1979. Intraspecific variation in demography and life history of the lizard, Sceloporus jarrovi, along an altitudinal gradient in southeastern Arizona. Ecology 60:901–909.

Ballinger, R. E. 1981. Food limiting effects in populations of Sceloporus jarrovi (Iguanidae). Southwestern Naturalist 25:554–557.

Ballinger, R.E., and R.A. Ballinger. 1979. Food resource utilization during periods of low and high food availability in Sceloporus jarrovi (Sauria: Iguanidae). Southwestern Naturalist 24:347–363.

Beal, M.S., M.S. Lattanzio, D.B. Miles. 2014. Differences in the thermal physiology of adult Yarrow’s spiny lizards (Sceloporus jarrovii) in relation to sex and body size. Ecology and Evolution 31:1-10.

Beuchat, C. A. 1989. Patterns and frequency of activity in a high altitude population of the iguanid lizard, Sceloporus jarrovi. Journal of Herpetology 23:152–158.

Bezy, R.L. and C.J. Cole 2014. Amphibians and reptiles of the Madrean Archipelago of Arizona and New Mexico. American Museum Novitates (3810):1-24.

Blais, B.R., C. Shaw, B. Mayer, and C.W. Brocka. 2017. Chiggers (still) infesting Yarrow’s Spiny Liz­ard, Sceloporus jarrovii, in the Chiricahua Moun­tains, Arizona. Sonoran Herpetologist 30(3):59-60.

Bonine, K.E. 2006. Yarrow’s Spiny Lizards (Sceloporus jarrovii) on Lizard Rock, Santa Catalina Mountains, Pima County, Arizona: Adventures of a diaper-bag-toting herpetologist. Sonoran Herpetologist 19 (7):78-79.

Brown, C. K. 1976. Local variation in scale characters of Sceloporus jarrovi (Sauria: Iguanidae) inhabiting the Pinaleno Mountains of Arizona. I. Frequency of head scute polymorphisms. Herpetologica 32(2):189-197.

Bulté, G., A.C. Plummer, A. Thibaudeau, and G. Blouin-Demers. 2009. Infection of Yarrow’s Spiny Lizards (Sceloporus jarrovii) by Chiggers and Malaria in the Chiricahua Mountains, Arizona. The Southwestern Naturalist 54:204-207.

Burns, T. A. 1970. Temperature of Yarrow’s spiny lizard Sceloporus jarrovi at high elevations. Herpetologica 26:9–16.

Bursey, C.R., and S.R. Goldberg. 1993. Diet of neonatal Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard, Sceloporus jarrovii (Phrynosomatidae). Southwestern Naturalist 38(4):381-383.

Cooper Jr., W.E. 2005. Duration of movement as a lizard foraging movement variable. Herpetologica 61 (4):363-372.

Cooper Jr, W.E. and A. Avalos. 2010a. Escape decisions by the syntopic congeners Sceloporus jarrovii and S. virgatus: Comparative effects of perch height and of predator approach speed, persistence, and direction of turning. Journal of Herpetology 44(3):425–430.

Cooper Jr., W.E. and A. Avalos. 2010b. Predation risk, escape and refuge use by mountain spiny lizards (Sceloporus jarrovii). Amphibia-Reptilia 31:363-373.

Cox, R. 2006. A test of the reproductive cost hypothesis for sexual size dimorphism in Yarrow’s spiny lizard Sceloporus jarrovii. Journal of Animal Ecology 75:1361–1369.

Cox R.M., and H.B. John-Alder. 2007. Growing apart together: The development of contrasting sexual size dimorphisms in sympatric Sceloporus lizards. Herpetologica. 2007:245–257.

Degenhardt, W.G., C. W. Painter, and A. H. Price 1996. Amphibians and Reptiles of New Mexico. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

Enderson, E. F., R. L. Bezy, W. C. Sherbrooke, and G. L. Bradley. 2001. Geographic distribution. Sceloporus jarrovii. Herpetological Review 32:57- 58.

Fitch, H. S. 1978. Sexual size differences in the genus Sceloporus. University of Kansas Science Bulletin 51 (13):441-461.

Gadsden, H., S.Ruiz, and G. Castañeda. 2015. Sceloporus jarrovii (Yarrow’s spiny lizard) and Sceloporus poinsettii (Crevice Spiny Lizard) preferred body temperature. Herpetological Review 46(2):261-262.

Gadsden, H., and J.L. Estrada-Rodriguez. 2008. Demography of the Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard, Sceloporus jarrovii, from the central Chihuahuan Desert. Western North American Naturalist 68(1):46-57.

Gadsden, H., J.L. Estrada-Rodríguez, D.A. Quezada-Rivera, and S.V. Leyva-Pacheco. 2011. Diet of the Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard Sceloporus jarrovii in the central Chihuahuan Desert. Southwestern Naturalist 56 (1):89-94.

Gilbert, A.L., and M.S. Lattanzio. 2016. Ontogenetic variation in the thermal biology of Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard, Sceloporus jarrovii. PLoS ONE 11(2): e0146904. doi:10.1371/journal. pone.0146904.

Goldberg, S.R. 1970. Seasonal ovarian histology of the ovoviviparous iguanid lizard Sceloporus jarrovi Cope. Journal of Morphology 132:255–276.

Goldberg, S.R. 1971. Reproductive cycle of the ovoviviparous iguanid lizard Sceloporus jarrovi Cope. Herpetologica 27:123–131.

Goldberg, S.R. 1997. Sceloporus jarrovii (Yarrow’s spiny lizard): reproduction in Mexico. Herpetological Review 28:204.

Golderg, S.R., and C.R. Bursey. 1990. Winter feeding in the mountain spiny lizard, Sceloporus jarrovi (Iguanidae). Journal of Herpetology 24(4):446-448.

Goldberg, S.R., and C.R. Bursey. 1992. Prevalence of the nematode Spauligodon giganticus (Oxyurida: Pharyngodonidae) in neonatal Yarrow’s Spiny Lizards, Sceloporus yarrovii (Sauria:Iguanidae). Journal of Parasitology 78(3):539-541.

Goldberg, S.R., and C.R. Bursey. 1993. Duration of attachment of the chigger, Eutrombicula lipovskyana (Trombiculidae) in mite pockets of Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard, Sceloporus jarrovii(Phrynosomatidae) from Arizona. Journal of Wildlife Diseases 29:142-144.

Halliday, W.D., J.E. Paterson, L.D. Patterson, S.J. Cooke, and G. Blouin-Demers. 2014. Testosterone, body size, and sexual signals predict parasite load in Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus jarrovii). Canadian Journal of Zoology 92(12):1075-1082.

Leaché, A.D. 2010. Species trees for spiny lizards (Genus Sceloporus): Identifying points of concordance and conflict between nuclear and mitochondrial data. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 54:162–171.

Leaché, A.D., and J.W.Sites, Jr. 2009. Chromosome evolution and diversification in North American Spiny Lizards (Genus Sceloporus). Cytogenetic Genome Research 127:166-181.

Martínez-Méndez, N. and F. Méndez-de la Cruz. 2007. Molecular phylogeny of the Sceloporus torquatus species-group (Squamata: Phrynosomatidae). Zootaxa (1609): 53-68

Middendorf, G.A., and C.A. Simon. 1988. Thermoregulation in the iguanid lizard Sceloporus jarrovi: the influences of age, time, and light conditions on body temperature and thermoregulatory behaviors. Southwestern Naturalist 33:347–356.

Moll, E.O. 2004. Sceloporus jarrovii, Cope, 1875 – Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard. Patronyms of the Pioneer West. Sonoran Herpetologist 17(4):38-41.

Moore, M.C., and C.A. Marler. 1987. Effects of testosterone manipulations on nonbreeding season territorial aggression in free-living male lizards, Sceloporus jarrovi. General and Comparative Endocrinology 65:225–232

Punzo, F., and L.G. Parker. 2006. Food-deprivation affects tongue extrusions as well as attractivity and proceptivity components of sexual behavior in the lizard, Sceloporus jarrovii. Amphibia-Reptilia 27 (3):377-383.

Ramírez-Bautista, A., O. Ramos-Flores, and J.W. Sites Jr. 2002. Reproductive cycle of the spiny lizard Sceloporus jarrovii (Sauria: Phrynosomatidae) from north-central Mexico. Journal of Herpetology 36:225–233.

Ruby, D.E. 1978. Seasonal changes in the territorial behavior of the iguanid lizard Sceloporus jarrovi. Copeia 1978:430–438.

Ruby, D.E. 1981. Phenotypic correlates of male reproductive success in the lizard, Sceloporus jarrovi. Pp. 96–197 in Natural selection and social behavior. R.D. Alexander and D.W. Tinkle (eds). New York Chiron Press.

Ruby, D.E. 1986. Selection of home range site by females of the lizard, Sceloporus jarrovi. Journal of Herpetology 20:466–469.

Rosen, P.C., and T.B. Persons. 2002. Geographic distribution. Sceloporus jarrovii. Herpetological Review 33:322-323.

Schuler, M.S., M.W. Sears, and M.J. Angilletta. 2011. Food consumption does not affect the preferred body temperature of Yarrow’s spiny lizard (Sceloporus jarrovii). Journal of Thermal Biology 36:112–115.

Schwalbe, C.R. 2009. Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard, Sceloporus jarrovii Cope, 1875. Pages 222-275 in Jones, L.L.C., and R.E. Lovich (eds.), Lizards of the American Southwest: A Photographic Field Guide.  Rio Nuevo Publishers, Tucson, Arizona.

Simon, C.A. 1975. The influence of food abundance on territory size in the iguanid lizard Sceloporus jarrovi. Ecology 56:993–998.

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Smith, G.R. and R.E. Ballinger. 1994b. Temperature relationships in the high-elevation viviparous lizard, Sceloporus jarrovi. American Midland Naturalist 131:181–189.

Smith, G.R., R.E. Ballinger, and J. W. Nietfeldt. 1994. Elevational variation of growth rates in neonate Sceloporus jarrovi: an experimental evaluation. Functional Ecology 8:215–218.

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Wiens, J.J., T.W. Reeder, and A.N. Montes de Oca. 1999. Molecular phylogenetics and evolution of sexual dichromatism among populations of the Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus jarrovii). Evolution 53 (6):1884-1897.

Zamudio, K.R., and A. M. Wieczorek. 2000. Microsatellites for studies of ecology, behavior, and evolution in Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard, Sceloporus jarrovii. Molecular Ecology 9:1667-1668.

 

Author: Jim Rorabaugh

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