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Xantusia henshawi STEJNEGER, 1893

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Higher TaxaXantusiidae (Xantusiinae), Scincoidea, Sauria, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Granite Night Lizard
S: Nocturna de Granito 
SynonymXantusia henshawi STEJNEGER 1893
Xantusia henshawi — VAN DENBURGH 1895
Xantusia picta COPE 1895: 859 (fide SMITH & TAYLOR 1950)
Xantusia henshawi — VAN DENBURGH 1922
Xantusia henshawi — SMITH 1946: 325
Xantusia henshawi — SMITH & TAYLOR 1950: 155
Xantusia henshawi — SAVAGE 1963
Xantusia henshawi henshawi — LEE 1976
Xantusia henshawi — STEBBINS 1985: 143
Xantusia henshawi — LINER 1994
Xantusia henshawi — SINCLAIR et al. 2004
Xantusia henshawi — HANSEN & SHEDD 2025 
DistributionUSA (S California),
Mexico (Baja California Norte)

Type locality: Witch Creek, San Diego county, California, 2,700 feet.  
Reproductionovoviviparous 
TypesHolotype: USNM 20339
Holotype: ANSP 12881 [Xantusia picta] 
DiagnosisUnfortunately we had to temporarily remove additional information as this was scraped by multiple AI companies who sell that data to their customers. These details, e.g. detailed descriptions or comparisons (about 685 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentHabitat/Ecomorph: rock-crevice 
EtymologyNamed after the collector H.W. Henshaw (1850-1930), who served as ornithologist on the Wheeler Survey and collected the type specimen of Xantusia henshawi. 
References
  • Atsatt, S.R. 1925. Observations upon living Xantusia henshawi Copeia 146: 71-72. - get paper here
  • Beolens, Bo; Michael Watkins, and Michael Grayson 2011. The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA - get paper here
  • Bezy, R L 2019. Night Lizards. Field Memoirs and a Summary of the Xantusiidae. ECO Herpetological Publishing and Distribution, Rodeo, New Mexico, ii + 220 pp. [review in HR 51 (3): 636] - get paper here
  • Bezy, Robert L. 2025. Biogeography of the Peninsular Reptiles in California. SONORAN HERPETOLOGIST 38 (2): 71-80 - get paper here
  • Bezy, Robert L. and Oscar Flores Villela. 1999. A new species of Xantusia (Squamata: Xantusiidae) from Zacatecas, Mexico. Herpetologica 55 (2): 174-184. - get paper here
  • Bezy, Robert L.; Kit B. Bezy, Kathryn Bolles, and Wade C. Sherbrooke 2019. Night lizards (Xantusia) and their discoverers on the Baja California Peninsula. Sonoran Herpetologist 32 (2): 25-33 - get paper here
  • Bezy,R.L. & SItes, J.W. 1987. A preliminary study of allozyme evolution in the lizard family Xantusiidae. Herpetologica 43: 281-289 - get paper here
  • Brattstrom, B.H. 1952. The Food of the Nightlizards, Genus Xantusia. Copeia 1952 (3). 168-172. - get paper here
  • Crother, B. I. (ed.) 2012. Standard Common and Current Scientific Names for North American Amphibians, Turtles, Reptiles, and Crocodilians, Seventh Edition. Herpetological Circular 39: 1-92
  • Goldberg, S.R. 2013. Reproduction in the Granite Night Lizard, Xantusia henshawi (Squamata: Xantusiidae), from southern California. Sonoran Herpetologist 26 (1):9-11. - get paper here
  • Grismer, L. Lee; Galvan, Mark A. 1986. A new night lizard (Xantusia henshawi) from a sandstone habitat in San Diego County, California. Transactions of the San Diego Society of Natural History 21 (10): 155-165 - get paper here
  • Hansen, Robert and Jackson D. Shedd 2025. California Amphibians and Reptiles. Princeton University Press, 528 pp., ISBN<br />9780691249087 (ebook) - get paper here
  • Jones, L.L. & Lovich, R.E. 2009. Lizards of the American Southwest. A photographic field guide. Rio Nuevo Publishers, Tucson, AZ, 568 pp. [review in Reptilia 86: 84] - get paper here
  • Kabes, L.E. & R.W. Clark 2016. The Use of Chemical Cues by Granite Night Lizards (Xantusia henshawi) to Evaluate Potential Predation Risk Copeia 104 (4): 930-941. - get paper here
  • Klauber, L.M. 1926. Field Notes on Xantusia henshawi Copeia 152: 115-117. - get paper here
  • Lee, J. C. 1976. Xantusia henshawi Stejneger granite night lizard. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (189): 1-2 - get paper here
  • Lee, J.C. 1974. The diel activity cycle of the lizard, Xantusia henshawi Copeia 1974 (4): 934-940. - get paper here
  • Lee, Julian C. 1975. The Autecology of Xantusia Henshawi henshawi (Sauria: Xantusiidae). Transactions of the San Diego Society of Natural History 17 (19): 259-278 - get paper here
  • Love, B. 2014. Tempowechsel bei Kleinwild. Reptilia (Münster) 19 (106): 76-77
  • Lovich, Robert 2001. Phylogeography of the night lizard, Xantusia henshawi, in southern California: evolution across fault zones. Herpetologica 57 (4):470-487 - get paper here
  • Mautz, W.J. & T.J. Case 1974. A Diurnal Activity Cycle in the Granite Night Lizard, Xantusia henshawi Copeia 1974 (1): 243-251. - get paper here
  • Nielsen, Stuart V; Brendan J Pinto, Irán Andira Guzmán-Méndez, Tony Gamble, 2020. First report of sex chromosomes in night lizards (Scincoidea: Xantusiidae). Journal of Heredity, esaa007 - get paper here
  • Noonan, Brice P.; Jennifer B. Pramuk, Robert L. Bezy, Elizabeth A. Sinclair, Kevin de Queiroz, Jack W. Sites Jr. 2013. Phylogenetic relationships within the lizard clade Xantusiidae: Using trees and divergence times to address evolutionary questions at multiple levels. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, Volume 69, Issue 1, October 2013, Pages 109–122 - get paper here
  • Peralta-García A, Valdez-Villavicencio JH, Fucsko LA, Hollingsworth BD, Johnson JD, Mata-Silva V, Rocha A, DeSantis DL, Porras LW, and Wilson LD. 2023. The herpetofauna of the Baja California Peninsula and its adjacent islands, Mexico: composition, distribution, and conservation status. Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 17(1&2): 57–142
  • Pilliod, D., Jeffries, M., Arkle, R. and Olson, D. 2024. Climate Futures for Lizards and Snakes in Western North America May Result in New Species Management Issues. Ecol Evol, 14: e70379 - get paper here
  • Savage, J. M. 1963. 'Studies on the Lizard Family Xantusiidae IV. The Genera. Contributions in Science, Los Angeles County Museum (71): 1 - 38 - get paper here
  • Sinclair, Elizabeth A.; Robert L. Bezy; Kathryn Bolles; Jose L. Camarillo R.; Keith A. Crandall and Jack W. Sites, Jr. 2004. Testing Species Boundaries in an Ancient Species Complex with Deep Phylogeographic History: Genus Xantusia (Squamata: Xantusiidae). American Naturalist 164 (3): 396-414 - get paper here
  • Smith, Hobart M. 1946. Handbook of Lizards: Lizards of the United States and of Canada. Comstock, Ithaca, NY, xxii + 557 pp.
  • Stebbins,R.C. 1985. A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians, 2nd ed. Houghton Mifflin, Boston
  • Stejneger, L. 1893. Diagnosis of a new Californian lizard. Proc. US Natl. Mus. 16: 467 - get paper here
  • Vicario, Saverio; Adalgisa Caccone and Jacques Gauthier 2003. Xantusiid "night" lizards: a puzzling phylogenetic problem revisited using likelihood-based Bayesian methods on mtDNA sequences. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 26 (2): 243-261 - get paper here
  • Werning, Heiko 2012. Die Reptilien und Amphibien des Südwestens. Draco 13 (50): 18-60 - get paper here
  • Wright, A.A. & A.H. Wright 1931. Some Stejneger Species. Photographs from Life Copeia 1931 (3): 84-85. - get paper here
 
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