Physical body

Sceloporus virgatus has an average body mass of 9.35 grams (0.330 oz) and an average body length of 48.2 mm (1.90 in).^[5] The striped plateau lizard has a pair of whiteish-yellow stripes on the dorsolateral sides of its body. Hence, the lizard gets its common name from its physical description of stripes, creating the "striped plateau lizard". In females, these stripes tend to appear more as a pale brown.^[4] Between the stripes, the body of the striped plateau lizard is colored gray, brown, or tan. This area is also delineated by two vertical rows of lightly shaded spots with dark edges. These spots are slightly difficult to see as they often appear faint and mostly dark in color without white spots in the center. There is another lightly shaded, lateral stripe located low on each side of the lizard, going from the neck to the groin area. The area between the dorsolateral and lateral stripes also tends to be darker than the mid-dorsal area of the body. The ventral underside of the striped plateau lizard, particularly the belly area, is a solid cream in color, with no pattern. However, near the throat, there is a small, faint green or pale blue spot ventrally on the adult lizards.^[3]

These animals are sexually dimorphic and there are many differences between males and females. For instance, the colored spots on the throat become bordered with orange or the orange color replaces any faint green or pale blue coloration in reproductive females. The chests of the striped plateau lizards also have a few black spots. Moreover, scales run in rows on the dorsal side of the bodies, in particular, diagonally, upward, and back to the rear side. The lizards also have pores, and for the scales that are located where the pores are, they are notched posteriorly. These scales and pores are most noticeable in male striped plateau lizards. Males are also smaller in size than females, measuring to less than 61 mm (2.4 in) in length. In addition, they have enlarged post-anal scales and swollen tail bases. In comparison to the female striped plateau lizards, the dorsal spotting on males tends to be less distinct, but the striping, the throat patches, and the body color are more vivid and clear.^[3]

Visual and hearing systems

As part of its visual system, the striped plateau lizard has corneal eyes. A curved cornea is an image-forming lens due to the difference in refractive indices between air and corneal tissue. In land vertebrates, many species with corneal eyes also have lenses, but for these species, the lenses are flatter and weaker than those of aquatic species. However, corneal eyes cannot focus in aquatic habitats. Thus, the cornea is the source of most of the refractive power for land vertebrates.^[5]

As for the auditory system of the striped plateau lizard, this species has a tympanic middle ear. This is a cavity between the outer ear and the inner ear, and it is filled with air. When auditory vibrations hit the tympanic membrane, or ear drum, sound is processed and heard.^[5]

Social interactions

Differences between sexes exist when interacting within the species and outside of the species. While both male and female striped plateau lizards defend territories against other individuals of their same sex, the interactions between males tend to be more aggressive. On the other hand, interactions between males and females are ruled by courtship.^[3]

Signaling modalities

Signals are vital to communicating and conveying information well, and Sceloporus lizards combine visual and chemical displays to defend territories and attract mates. In S. virgatus specifically, loss of the color signal is correlated with an increase in chemical behavior but no change in the use of the motion display. Male striped plateau lizards, for instance, use both visual motion with head-bobs, and they use chemical signals to identify their territory and its boundaries. The males use color, specifically the blue patches of color on their bellies, to indicate aggression. This belly color also seems to get more attention from males than from females, which makes sense with the context that it is used in. In particular, as there were more evolutionary changes in the visual motion of head-bobs, there were fewer chemical signals of the large femoral pores associated with the evolutionary changes.^[2]

The three signals of motion, color, and chemical cues have evolved differently over time. Firstly, head-bob displays have evolved relatively quickly in response to different selective pressures. For example, arboreality, or the tendency to live in trees, has been shown to affect the evolution of head-bob signals as Sceloporus living in trees seem to produce less jagged head-bob displays than Sceloporus living terrestrially, on land. Thus, lizards that use more head-bobs are also more likely to have evolved an arboreal lifestyle, as well as viviparity. Secondly, the loss of blue belly patches correlates with a lower chance that lizards have evolved arboreality or viviparity. Thirdly, chemical cues are only really associated with arboreality, as arboreal lizards are more likely to have fewer femoral pores.^[2]

Predator and prey

The locomotion of the striped plateau lizard involves running and climbing.^[5][6]

Sceloporus virgatus are invertivores in the sense that they eat insects and other arthropods.^[8] Their preferred method of catching prey is via a sudden ambush technique. As these lizards are rather sedentary, this is also called a sit-and-wait method, in which S. virgatus sits and waits for a prey to come up and then ambushes the prey.^[5]