13 Lizards in Missouri: A Field Guide to Native and Invasive Species
October 17, 2026
Lizards in Missouri rarely make the state’s wildlife highlight reel, overshadowed by black bears, bald eagles, and venomous snakes. But look closer at a sun-baked glade in the Ozarks or a brick wall in downtown Joplin, and a surprisingly varied reptile community reveals itself.
Missouri is home to 13 species of lizards, with two established nonnative species that inhabit yard landscaping and buildings in urban areas alongside the state’s native glade-dwellers. One of them squirts blood from its eyes as a defense against predators, while another is missing its legs entirely but still gets mistaken for a snake every summer.
This guide walks through all 13 species found in Missouri, covering where each one lives, how to tell it apart from its lookalikes, and which populations deserve a second look before you decide what you’re seeing.
| Species | Status | Typical Size | Primary Habitat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eastern Collared Lizard | Native | 8–14 inches | Rocky glades, quarries, riprap |
| Texas Horned Lizard | Native, rare | Small, flat-bodied | Open, sandy glades in the southwest |
| Prairie Lizard | Native | About 5 inches | Woodpiles, fence posts, rock outcrops |
| Southern Coal Skink | Native | Up to 7 inches | Moist woodlands, stream edges |
| Common Five-lined Skink | Native | Medium-sized | Forests, rotting logs, wood piles |
| Broad-headed Skink | Native | Largest Missouri skink | Tree trunks, wooded bottomlands |
| Great Plains Skink | Native | Large, heavy-bodied | Prairies, rocky hillsides |
| Northern Prairie Skink | Native, rare | Medium, striped | Sandy prairies, northwest counties only |
| Little Brown Skink | Native | Up to 5.75 inches | Leaf litter, forest floor |
| Prairie Racerunner | Native | About 10 inches | Dry, open glades statewide |
| Western Slender Glass Lizard | Native | Up to 26 inches | Prairies, grasslands |
| Mediterranean Gecko | Introduced | 1.5–2.5 inches | Buildings, walls, urban areas |
| Italian Wall Lizard | Introduced | About 10 inches | Urban walls, downtown Joplin |
1. Eastern Collared Lizard
The eastern collared lizard (Crotaphytus collaris) is one of the most striking reptiles in the state. The eastern collared lizard is a colorful, long-tailed lizard with a large head. Males are typically more colorful with a blue-green tint and bright yellow spots, while females are often duller with yellow-brown tints and faint light colored spots. Females heavy with eggs develop red spots or bars on their sides and neck.
In Missouri, this species is mostly restricted to rocky glade habitats in the southern half of the state. It occurs throughout most of the Missouri Ozarks and in glades of the St. Francois Mountains, with relict populations south of the Missouri River in the Kansas City area, while populations north of the river appear to be introduced.
The lizard’s range doesn’t stop at the state line, either; it extends well beyond the Ozarks, and readers tracking a similar species across the border can compare notes in this guide to lizards found in Mexico, since the eastern collared lizard’s range runs from southeastern Utah and Arizona in the west to south-central Missouri and Arkansas, and south into Mexico.
Collared lizards are built to hunt. The eastern collared lizard has a large head and powerful jaws perfect for capturing grasshoppers, beetles, spiders and sometimes other lizards. In turn, they’re often preyed upon by snakes, hawks, and roadrunners.
Decades of fire suppression let Eastern Red Cedar choke out the open glades these lizards depend on, and this species has declined due to loss of glade habitat where trees were permitted to overgrow those desert-like areas, making it a Species of Conservation Concern today. For a broader look at which species share that designation, see this rundown of endangered animals in Missouri.
Pro Tip: Adults are usually active from April to September, peaking from May to late July, so early summer mornings on a sunlit rock pile are the best time to spot one basking.
2. Texas Horned Lizard
The Texas horned lizard (Phrynosoma cornutum) is Missouri’s most unusual-looking reptile and its rarest native lizard. The lizard’s horns are extensions of its cranium and contain true bone, giving it a miniature-dragon look that’s hard to mistake for anything else. Many people know it as the “horny toad,” but it’s definitely not a toad — this flat-bodied lizard just has a short tail that can cause observers to confuse it with an amphibian.
Texas horned lizards are found in southwestern Missouri in open, sandy land without much plant life, where the habitat is mostly rocky with loose soil or sand for burrowing and egg-laying. When cornered, it has one of the strangest defenses in the animal kingdom — the species is best known for shooting blood from its eyes to deter predators. Readers who want to see how horned lizards fare in a very different landscape can check out this guide to lizards in Zion National Park, where several horned lizard relatives live among red rock instead of Ozark glades.
Important Note: Missouri sits at the edge of this species’ range, and the eastern distributional limit of the Texas horned lizard in the Ozark Mountain forests of Missouri likely represents introductions, though some researchers argue these records reflect natural relic populations. NatureServe currently lists the species as imperiled (S2) in Missouri, so any sighting is worth reporting rather than disturbing.
For more on the species’ broader range and natural history, the Wikipedia entry on the Texas horned lizard covers its distribution from Colorado and Kansas down through Texas and into Mexico in detail.
3. Prairie Lizard
The prairie lizard (Sceloporus consobrinus) is one of the lizards Missouri residents are most likely to notice without trying, often darting along fence posts, woodpiles, and sun-warmed rock outcrops. The species carries a complicated naming history: it used to be called the “northern fence lizard,” a subspecies of the eastern fence lizard, but biologists revised the taxonomy and it’s now considered a distinct species, the prairie lizard.
It is currently found in the southern half and northeast corner of the state. Despite the name, the “Prairie Lizard” label is somewhat misleading, since this species isn’t particularly associated with true prairie habitat in Missouri — it’s just as at home around barns and woodpiles. One quirky feeding habit sets it apart from other Missouri lizards: prairie lizards are known to eat the winged life stage of termites, called “alates,” as they emerge from underground.
Because it’s so easy to find around homes and outbuildings, the prairie lizard is often the first reptile a new observer learns to identify. If this is your entry point into reptile-watching, this roundup of best reptiles for beginners covers species that make a similarly approachable next step, whether you’re watching them in the yard or considering one as a pet.
4. Southern Coal Skink
The southern coal skink (Plestiodon anthracinus pluvialis) is one of the shyest lizards in Missouri, rarely seen basking out in the open the way collared lizards and racerunners do. Adults have four light stripes running the length of the body and a portion of the tail, juveniles are sometimes all black with no markings, and during the breeding season some males develop reddish blotches on the sides of the head.
Two subspecies exist in the United States — the Northern Coal Skink and the Southern Coal Skink — scattered across different parts of the country, with the southern subspecies documented in Missouri’s Jefferson County. Coal skinks are considered one of the most secretive, shy skinks in the state, which means most sightings happen by accident, usually when someone flips over a damp log or flat rock near a stream.
Like most Missouri skinks, coal skinks rely heavily on invertebrates for food. If you’re curious what else shares that menu in the state, this guide to spiders found in Missouri covers several species that regularly turn up as prey for ground-dwelling lizards.
5. Common Five-Lined Skink
The common five-lined skink (Plestiodon fasciatus) is probably the most recognizable juvenile lizard in Missouri, thanks to its glossy black body, five cream-colored stripes, and a bright blue tail that fades as the animal matures. Adults lose much of that vivid color, settling into a brownish-olive tone with faded stripes, while breeding males develop a reddish-orange tint along the jaw.
These skinks favor wooded habitat, sheltering under loose bark, inside rotting logs, and around wood piles and old foundations. Unlike many reptiles that abandon their eggs, some lizards, including many skinks and glass lizards, show real parental care — laying eggs under a flat rock or inside a rotten log and staying with them until they hatch. That behavior is unusual enough among reptiles generally that it’s worth exploring in more depth through this explainer on how reptiles reproduce.
6. Broad-Headed Skink
The broad-headed skink (Plestiodon laticeps) is the largest skink species found in Missouri, and the name fits — mature males develop a noticeably swollen, orange-red head during the breeding season that makes them look almost unrelated to females and juveniles. Unlike the shyer coal skink, broad-headed skinks are strong climbers, often seen scaling tree trunks in wooded river bottoms rather than staying on the ground.
The species is classified as a species of Least Concern by the IUCN, and its population in Missouri appears stable in the forested habitat it prefers. Their size lets them take on larger prey than most other Missouri skinks, including beetles and other sizable insects; this guide to beetles in Missouri covers several species that regularly end up on the menu.
7. Great Plains Skink
The Great Plains skink (Plestiodon obsoletus) is a heavy-bodied lizard with dark-edged scales that create a faint, net-like pattern across its back — a useful field mark for telling it apart from Missouri’s other large skinks. It favors prairies and rocky hillsides in the western and southwestern parts of the state, where loose soil makes burrowing easier.
Like the broad-headed skink, the Great Plains skink carries an IUCN status of Least Concern, reflecting a range that extends well beyond Missouri’s borders across much of the central United States. It’s one of the largest skink species native to North America, and its size alone often surprises people who assume all skinks stay small.
8. Northern Prairie Skink
The northern prairie skink (Plestiodon septentrionalis) is one of the rarest lizards on this list. In Missouri, these lizards are rare, occurring only in the state’s northwest counties. A related subspecies, the southern prairie skink, is known only from Barton County near the Kansas border, making both populations worth flagging if you happen to find one.
Missouri has two subspecies of prairie skinks, and both carry many stripes along a long tail. Because their range is so narrow within the state, northern prairie skinks rarely show up in casual backyard surveys — most confirmed sightings come from targeted herpetological fieldwork in sandy prairie remnants. Anyone tracking restricted-range species in Missouri may also want to browse this list of endangered animals in Missouri, several of which share the same shrinking prairie habitat.
9. Little Brown Skink
The little brown skink (Scincella lateralis), also called the ground skink, stands apart from nearly every other forest-dwelling lizard in the state. It is a small, slender lizard that almost never climbs, unlike all other forest-dwelling Missouri lizards. It is typically brown but can be golden brown or black, with dark brown or black stripes running along the body.
Adults reach up to 5.75 inches long, with coloring that ranges from golden-brown to nearly black and dark stripes that often blend into the main body color, while the belly stays white, sometimes with a yellowish cast. Because it sticks to leaf litter instead of open rock, it’s one of the easiest Missouri lizards to miss entirely. Its range extends into similar wooded habitat across much of the Southeast, including the species covered in this guide to lizards found in Tennessee.
10. Prairie Racerunner
The prairie racerunner (Aspidoscelis sexlineatus viridis) is built for speed. It is a long, slender, fast-moving lizard of dry, open areas. The ground color is dark brown or black, with normally seven pale stripes — yellow, white, gray, or pale blue — extending from the head along the back and sides onto the tail. The head and front part of the body are often tinged with blue or green, especially in males.
The prairie racerunner occurs statewide except for the northern and north-central counties. It has one notable lookalike worth learning to separate at a glance: the nonnative Italian wall lizard, now established in downtown Joplin.
Common Mistake: Both lizards run about 10 inches long as adults, but the prairie racerunner has 6 or 7 definite, solid stripes, while the Italian wall lizard’s stripes are made up of a series of dashes or dots instead. Checking the stripes up close is the fastest way to tell a native racerunner from an invasive wall lizard.
For the full field-guide entry on this species, the Missouri Department of Conservation’s prairie racerunner guide includes range maps and additional identification notes.
11. Western Slender Glass Lizard
The western slender glass lizard (Ophisaurus attenuatus attenuatus) confuses plenty of first-time observers because it has no legs at all. It is legless, but it has the eyelids and ear openings that snakes lack, which is the quickest way to confirm you’re looking at a lizard rather than a snake. It is the only legless lizard in Missouri, and it’s also the longest lizard in the state.
The tail makes up about two-thirds of the body length, but it breaks off very easily if the animal feels threatened. Movement is another giveaway: unlike snakes, glass lizards don’t slither — instead of using specialized abdominal or neck muscles, they push off of objects to move, and they can actually get stuck in the middle of roads because there’s nothing to push off of there. They eat insects, small animals, and even bird eggs, and are in turn preyed upon by snakes, mammals, and birds.
12. Mediterranean Gecko
The Mediterranean gecko (Hemidactylus turcicus) holds an odd distinction in Missouri: it’s the most abundant and widespread gecko in the state, yet it isn’t native here at all. It was introduced to Missouri through imported plants that carried its egg clutches, and it has since spread well beyond where anyone intended it to go.
Adults have vertical pupils, large round eyes with immovable eyelids, and two color phases for camouflage — a pale phase that runs light pink to pale yellow or white with brown or gray blotches, and a dark phase where the coloring darkens to gray or brown, obscuring those blotches. They’re nocturnal but easy to find anyway, since they’re considered an “urbanized” species just as happy living inside a house as in the wild, commonly turning up on walls, ceilings, and window screens where they hunt insects drawn to porch lights.
It’s the most widely introduced lizard in the United States, and in states like Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma it’s typically found in scattered locations centering on urban areas rather than spread evenly across the landscape. This kind of human-assisted spread isn’t unique to North America, either — related house gecko species have hitchhiked into warm urban environments worldwide, including the ones covered in this guide to lizards found in Malaysia. For more on its range and natural history, see this overview from GeckoWeb.
13. Italian Wall Lizard
The Italian wall lizard (Podarcis siculus) is Missouri’s newest lizard resident, and so far it has stayed remarkably contained. So far, the population is restricted to an urban area that supports few native lizards, but nearby natural habitat in rocky glades must be monitored to make sure this invasive lizard doesn’t spread and compete with native species.
The species is native to the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, and the north Adriatic coast, a long way from the limestone glades of southwest Missouri. The first established colony in Missouri, in Joplin, traces back to escaped animals collected from an existing population in Topeka, established sometime around 2001 to 2002. Coloring tends toward green on the head, neck, and upper body, often with a brownish mid-dorsal stripe.
Key Insight: The Italian wall lizard has been placed on Missouri’s Prohibited Species list, meaning it cannot be kept as a pet, imported, exported, transported, sold, or purchased — even for people who find one already living in their yard. Residents who spot one inside city limits are asked to report the location to researchers and to the Missouri Department of Conservation.
The Joplin population has persisted since around 2000, long enough that it’s unlikely to disappear on its own. Readers interested in where this species thrives in its native range can compare notes with this guide to lizards found in Zante, a Mediterranean island where wall lizards are right at home rather than an unwelcome newcomer. For the original documentation of the Joplin colony, the Kansas Herpetofaunal Atlas and the Chert Glades Chapter of the Missouri Master Naturalists both cover its spread in detail.
Missouri’s 13 lizard species cover an unusually wide range of lifestyles for a single state — glade specialists that need periodic fire to survive, forest skinks that never leave the leaf litter, a legless oddity that gets mistaken for a snake, and two recent arrivals that have made themselves at home in city neighborhoods.
Learning to tell them apart takes some practice, especially with lookalikes like the prairie racerunner and Italian wall lizard, but it also turns an ordinary walk through a glade or down a Joplin sidewalk into something worth paying attention to.
For identification photos and range maps covering the whole list, the complete Missouri lizard identification guide is a useful next stop, and anyone who spots an Italian wall lizard or Mediterranean gecko outside its known range should consider reporting it to the Missouri Department of Conservation.