The Six-Lined Racerunner

While relaxing on the front porch of our camp house my ears pick up on a rustling sound. I walk over to one end of the porch and see a six-lined racerunner (Cnemidophorus sexlineatus) foraging in some leaves for spiders.
Some people confuse these with skinks, but skinks give off a glossy, shiny appearance whereas racerunners do not. Skinks are smooth to the touch and racerunners have more of a rough texture to them. These lizards can reach lengths of up to 10 inches, most of this being tail. This sandy area provides the necessary substrate for burrows that females dig to lay their thin shelled eggs for which there is no brooding, meaning the eggs are covered with sand and left to be incubated by the warmth of the sun. I back up and then get down on my hands and knees and slowly creep back in its direction. As I approach it again our eyes lock. Its forked tongue flicks as it samples the air for my scent. I know from experience that these little dudes are lightning fast almost to the point that they seem to know what you’re going to do even before you do it. If I’m going to catch it I need to be really quick about it. It continued to stare me down as if to say “it’s your move”. So I do and even before I reach out…..it’s escapes under the house. Cursing I get up and return to the confines of my chair and before I sit down I hear the rustling again. Arrogant little fellow isn't he.
Crouching down again I go for a second chance only to find that it’s expecting me as I see its beady little eyes again gazing at me. It then begins to jump from side to side as if to say “catch me if you can!”. I try several more times and each time it dodges my attempts skillfully racing underneath the house and then back out as if to mock me. In Roger Conant’s book “A Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians” he says “Racerunners are well named, usually winning the race with the would-be collector”. Truer words have never been spoken, but don’t worry I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve the next time we encounter one another.

Eastern Fence Lizard

While mowing grass along the edges of the barn my eyes caught movement along one of the aged planks of cypress that make up its walls. Blending in quite well against the woodwork was an eastern fence lizard. Ten minutes of haphazard grabbing finally paid off. In other words he made me work for it. If anyone driving by had seen this they would've thought I had lost my mind as I chased this speedy reptile up and down that wall. He wriggled and squirmed trying to release himself from my grip, but quickly became calm once I began scratching the top of his head.Belonging to a group of lizards from the genus Sceloporus, which means “spiny lizard”, they're not quite as fast as the racerunners around here, but they can be tricky to catch. Finding them on trees makes for a more difficult capture, because as you approach them they dart to the other side of the tree and continue this round and round escape tactic until finally scurrying higher and out of reach. I try to make sure when I do grab one (as I do with all lizards, geckos, etc.) I get it by its upper body and not by its tail, which would break off rather easily. Known as autotomy, lizards will relinquish part of their tails in order to escape and distract a predator. Not to worry it will grow back to be used again.
Their skin has a very rough texture due to its scales being keeled and pointed. Blue markings are found under the chins and on the sides of the belly on males during breeding season (April-August). They flash these patches to attract females by bobbing up and down as if performing pushups. Normally these patches are bright in color, but this particular male’s chin patches are lighter than usual. Also no patches were found on its underside. Not sure why. Could it be that this one is a juvenile? Do the patches fade following breeding season? If anyone knows the answer to this please share. These lizards are diurnal and when not hunting for prey (beetles, ants, weevils, spiders, and centipedes) they spend much of their time basking in the sunlight, waiting for fools like me to try and catch 'em. To check out more photos of this dude go to my Flickr page.