Eastern Glass Lizard

The eastern glass lizard, Ophisaurus ventralis, is a legless reptile of the family Anguidae and the longest and heaviest of the glass lizards in genus Ophisaurus, endemic to the southeastern United States from southeastern Virginia through south Florida west to Louisiana, with isolated records in Oklahoma and Missouri. Adults reach 46 to 108 centimeters in total length, with a lateral groove of more than 99 scales, unmarked undersides, older individuals showing longitudinal dark dorsal lines, and some developing a greenish back with yellow underside unique among North American Ophisaurus. Unlike true snakes, it has movable eyelids, an external ear opening and the lateral groove, and it favors flatwoods near wetlands with sandy soils and salt-tolerant tidal areas, foraging by day as an opportunistic omnivore of insects, small mammals, eggs and vegetation, and sheds its tail as a predator defense.