Elgaria

Elgaria
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Elgaria multicarinata eating a mantis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Subphylum:	Vertebrata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Sauria
Family:	Anguidae
Subfamily:	Gerrhonotinae
Genus:	Elgaria Gray, 1838
Species
Seven, see text.

Elgaria is a genus of New World lizards in the family Anguidae. Their common name is western alligator lizards.

Geographic range

Species in the genus Elgaria are distributed in western North America, from Mexico to Canada.

Species

There are seven species:

• Elgaria cedrosensis (Fitch, 1934)
• Elgaria coerulea (Wiegmann, 1828) — northern alligator lizard
• Elgaria kingii Gray, 1838 — Madrean alligator Lizard
• Elgaria multicarinata (Blainville, 1835) — southern alligator lizard
• Elgaria panamintina (Stebbins, 1958) — Panamint alligator lizard
• Elgaria paucicarinata (Fitch, 1934) — San Lucan alligator lizard
• Elgaria velazquezi Grismer & Hollingsworth, 2001

Nota bene: A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than Elgaria.

Further reading

• Gray JE. 1838. Catalogue of the Slender-tongued Saurians, with Descriptions of many new Genera and Species. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., First Series 1: 274-283, 388-394. (Elgaria, new genus, p. 390).

• Gray JE. 1845. Catalogue of the Specimens of Lizards in the Collection of the British Museum. London: Trustees of the British Museum. (Edward Newman, printer). xxviii + 289 pp. (Genus Elgaria, p. 46).

• Stebbins RC. 2003. A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians, Third Edition. The Peterson Field Guide Series ®. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin. xiii + 533 pp. ISBN 978-0-395-98272-3. (Genus Elgaria, p. 331).