Tegus Whiptail Lizards and Relatives: Teiidae

The whiptail lizards, tegus, and other members of this family have long, thin bodies with long legs and narrow heads with noticeable eyes and long, forked tongues. Their tails often stretch one-and-a-half times as long as the rest of their bodies and sometimes more. Some are camouflaged in drab browns, but others are colored in bright greens, reds, and blues. Their overall size may be small or large, depending on the species. In some, the adults are less than 5 inches (12 centimeters) long from the tip of the head to the end of the tail, while other species when full-grown are 4 feet 3 inches (1.3 meters) long from head to tail. In most cases, the males are a bit bigger than the females.