Excerpts from Jim Conrad's
Naturalist Newsletter
entry dated August 8, 2024, issued from near Tequisquiapan, elevation about 1,900m (6200 ft), Querétaro state, MÉXICO
(~N20.55°, ~W99.89°)
SPINY LIZARD
Beside a trail through the overgrazed scrub, the above lizard remained unmoving while I approached, then stood over him. He must be sick, injured or dead. I got this picture:
The eyes looked normal, but surely something was wrong with this lizard. I reached for him to get a shot of his throat and belly region, and he zipped into the grass indicating no problem at all.
With such spiny scales, he had to be yet another species of the species-rich Sceloporus, the spiny lizards. Above, note the hint of red and possibly a touch of blue a few scales from the top of the arm, in the throat area. I find images with markings like this identified as SCELOPORUS SPINOSUS, often referred to as the Blue-spotted Spiny Lizard, in reference to their sometimes-present blue throats and lower sides.
Sceloporus spinosus commony occurs throughout upland eastern, central and southern Mexico south to Oaxaca in southern Mexico. Luis Fernando Hidalgo Licona in his 2016 thesis entitled "Dimorfismo sexual y nich trófico en la lagartija ovípara Sceloporus spinosus (Squamata: Phrynosomatidae) de San Luis Potosí, México".... found that at his study site in the state of San Luis Potosí, this species fed on insects, mainly ants, beetles and true bugs, with ants forming 64% of the diet of the stomachs examined.