Herpetofauna: One Life's List

Ophisaurus ventralis
Eastern Glass Lizard

Jasper Co., South Carolina
May 28, 2000

On one of the blacktop roads near the state line, I finally caught one of these lizards out on the road surface, and managed to slap hands on it before it could get off the road and into the brush.  With Glass Lizards, it is better to 'slap' than grab; grabbing leads to a handful of broken off, wriggling tail.

Judging from the numbers of glass lizards I spotted on them, it would appear that the grassy, elevated shoulders of roads are favorite (and potentially lethal) habitats.

The top photo is the my first ventralis; the bottom photo is a specimen found along the Florida-Alabama state line back in 2003.