Florida Scrub Lizard (Sceloporus woodi)
Photographed at the Helen and Allan Cruickshank Sanctuary in Rockledge, Florida.
The Florida Scrub Lizard is restricted to Florida. The distribution of the Scrub Lizard is highly spotty, probably due to the patchy distribution of suitable habitat. Most can be found in the extensive Sand Pine scrubs in the Ocala National Forest in north-central Florida. Atlantic coast populations can still be found in Brevard, Indian River, St. Lucie, Martin, Palm Beach, and Broward Counties. This lizard prefers open sandy areas bordering Sand Pine scrub and sandhill associations.
The Florida Scrub Lizard is known by its rough, overlapping scales, and by its clear-cut dark lateral stripe. Males have a conspicuous blue patch bordered with black on each side of the throat, and a similar blue area with a less heavy black border on each side of the belly. Females are generally white on the ventral area except for weaker blue patches like those of males.
A close relative, the Eastern Fence Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus) overlaps geographically with the Florida Scrub Lizard in northern Florida but is easily distinguished from this species because it lacks the dark stripe. Mother nature does however play tricks in that these two lizards have been known to hybridize providing a challenge in identification.
