European Glass Lizard
Taxonomy
Order: Squamata
Family: Anguidae
Genus/species: Ophisaurus apodus
Description
The European glass lizard is the largest lizard of its family.
Its average length (including tail) is two and three
feet (60 to 90 cm). The longest recorded European glass
lizard was four feet (1.2 m). They normally weigh 11 to
21 ounces (300 to 600 g).
Legless lizards may look like snakes, but they are true lizards. Unlike snakes, they have movable eyelids, several rows of belly scales, and the ability to break off their tail when they are in danger. Although many members of this family lack limbs, this is not a characteristic of every species. While the family contains both limbless and limbed lizards, the skull, teeth, and tongue of these species are anatomically similar.
They are diurnal and crepuscular, and are often active after rainfall.
Distribution and Habitat
European glass lizards range from southeastern Europe into
southwestern Asia.
The European glass lizard is normally found in fairly dry habitats, often frequenting rocky hillsides with some cover. These lizards can also be found in dry stone walls, embankments, and stone piles.
Diet in the Wild
Carnivorous, they feed primarily on snails and slugs
in wetter areas. In drier areas, they hunt during the day
for insects such as grasshoppers and beetles. They can
also hunt small mammals and bird eggs.
Zoo Diet
They eat crickets and occasionally pinkies.
Reproduction
Female glass lizards usually reach sexual maturity at two
or three years of age. About 50 percent of the species
in this family lay eggs; the others bear live young. The
European glass lizard is an egg layer. Breeding season
for these lizards is late spring or early summer. Two
months after copulation, females lay a clutch of six to
ten soft-shelled, elongated eggs that are about one inch
in length. Females remain with their nest during incubation,
although they do not aggressively defend it. Development
takes at least six weeks, with hatching occurring in early
August. Newly hatched lizards are about six inches (15
cm) in length. Once young hatch, the female leaves them
and they must hunt on their own.
Life Span
The European glass lizard may live about 20 years in the
wild and up to 38 years in captivity.
Status
Neither threatened nor endangered, although fear of snakes
causes people to kill thousands of legless lizards each year
even though they are harmless and quite beneficial.
Fun Facts
Legless lizards still retain free-floating remnants of a hipbone
and tiny tips of hind legs.
The name glass lizard refers to these animals' ability to "shatter" their tail into several pieces rather than breaking off a single piece as most other autotomizing lizards do. The tail of this lizard makes up about two-thirds of its total body length. If this lizard dropped its tail and it broke into several pieces, the body would look about the same size as the pieces of wiggling tail. It is difficult for apredator to tell which wiggling part is really the lizard. They can regenerate their tail, although it is usually not as long as the original nor is it capable of breaking off a second time.
The Family Anguidae has around 80 species that are largely confined to the Americas. Two species of this family occur in the Old World: the slow worm (Anguis fragilis) and the European legless lizard (Ophisaurus apodus), which is exhibited at RDC. Although many members of this family lack limbs, this is not a characteristic of every anguid; many American anguid lizards have four well-developed limbs.
