Yellow-spotted Night Lizard

🔤 Taxonomy

Lepidophyma flavimaculatum is the accepted scientific name. Older literature also uses the misspelling Lepidophyma flavomaculatum. The two currently recognized subspecies are L. f. flavimaculatum and L. f. ophiophthalmum. L. lineri and L. reticulatum were formerly treated as subspecies of L. flavimaculatum but are now recognized as separate species.

Common names used in the hobby:

Yellow-spotted night lizard
Yellow-spotted tropical night lizard

German common name:

Krokodilnachtechse

📌 Description

The yellow-spotted night lizard is a secretive forest-floor species for an experienced keeper, not a handling pet. Its most important requirements are moderate temperatures, humid retreats with fresh air, numerous tight hiding places, small live prey, and a secure enclosure.

Adults generally measure about 18-25 cm in total length, although published measurements are often given as snout-to-vent length and vary among populations. The dark body carries yellow or cream spots and prominent tubercular scales. The eyelids are fused into a clear spectacle, so debris, dehydration, and poor shedding around the eye need prompt attention.

Reliable species-specific longevity data are scarce. Treat acquisition as a long-term commitment rather than relying on a precise lifespan claim.

Quick reference	Target
Adult size	about 18-25 cm total length
Enclosure for one adult	at least 60 x 45 x 45 cm
Ambient temperature	22-26°C
Gentle warm surface	27-29°C
Night temperature	18-22°C
Humidity	70-85%, with humid retreats and airflow
Light	bright day/night cycle; low-level UVB recommended
Food	varied, gut-loaded live invertebrates

🌍 Distribution

The species occurs from southeastern Mexico through parts of Central America, including Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama; records from El Salvador are reported but not consistently accepted by every regional source. It is mainly associated with humid tropical and premontane forest from roughly 120 to 940 m elevation.

This lizard lives at ground level and spends the day in narrow, moist spaces beneath decaying logs, bark, rocks, roots, and leaf litter. A country-level map necessarily overstates such a patchy, microhabitat-dependent range.

Range map

⚖️ Legal status

Checked on 2026-08-14: Lepidophyma flavimaculatum was not found in the current CITES Appendices, and no species-specific listing was found in the EU wildlife-trade Annexes. The Bern Convention is not relevant to this Central American species.

That does not make wild collection unrestricted. Mexico lists the species under NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010 as Pr (subject to special protection). Export, collection, possession, sale, or transport may also be controlled in other range countries. Buy only a correctly identified, preferably captive-bred animal with an invoice, breeder or importer details, and documents showing legal origin. Verify current national rules before acquisition or cross-border transport.

🤌 Husbandry

Published species-specific husbandry data are sparse. Treat the enclosure dimensions, humidity, feeding, and supplement schedule below as conservative starting points rather than tested species requirements. A practical baseline for one adult is 60 x 45 x 45 cm. Floor area and the number of usable retreats matter more than height. Larger housing makes it easier to create a gentle thermal and moisture gradient without leaving the animal exposed.

House animals singly unless their sex, locality, health, and breeding compatibility are known. Some populations reproduce sexually and others include all-female parthenogenetic lineages; unknown-origin animals should not be mixed. A solitary female may still produce young, so a secure nursery enclosure should be available.

New or imported animals require quarantine away from the established collection. Use simple hides and substrate, separate tools, and written records of weight, feeding, shedding, and feces. Arrange a fecal examination and reptile-veterinary assessment when origin is uncertain or symptoms appear.

💡 Lighting

Provide a clear 10-12 hour day/night cycle with moderate visible light and plenty of deep shade. This species is nocturnal and often remains under cover even when active, so intense illumination across the whole enclosure is inappropriate.

Species-specific UVB measurements are not published. As a conservative inference from this nocturnal, cover-using ecology, low-level UVB is recommended as an optional physiological resource: plan around Ferguson Zone 1, with a maximum UVI near 0.5-1.0 at the most exposed usable surface and effectively zero UVB inside retreats. Measure through the actual mesh and never remove cover to force exposure. Do not use colored night lamps.

🌡 Heating and temperature

ambient air: 22-26°C
gentle warm surface: 27-29°C
cool retreat: 20-23°C
night: 18-22°C

Use thermostated overhead heat on one end only if the room cannot provide the target range. Night lizards live in buffered microhabitats and should not be treated like open-basking tropical species. At La Selva, Costa Rica, one field study measured a mean body temperature of 26.42°C and a mean critical thermal maximum of 32.02°C in L. flavimaculatum. These are field physiology data, not captive set points: avoid sustained enclosure temperatures above about 29°C, especially in wet housing, and do not use the critical maximum as a husbandry target.

Measure air temperature at animal level and surface temperature beneath bark. Heat mats under a thick wet substrate create a poorly controlled warm sump and are not recommended. No routine winter cooling is needed for ordinary pet care.

💧 Humidity and water

As a conservative starting range, maintain roughly 70-85% relative humidity, with sheltered pockets reaching 80-90% after misting. The upper layer of leaf litter may begin to dry between cycles, while the lower substrate and selected retreats remain lightly moist. Adjust misting from measured conditions, sheds, hydration, and substrate behavior. Humidity must come with cross-ventilation, not sealed stagnant air.

Offer a shallow, stable water dish and replace the water daily. Mist foliage, cork, and part of the substrate rather than saturating every surface. Drainage, leaf-litter renewal, and removal of spoiled food prevent sour substrate and fungal growth.

🌿 Enclosure and decoration

Build a layered forest floor with many body-tight choices:

8-12 cm of drainage-capable soil, coconut fiber, fine orchid bark, and leaf litter
cork slabs, curved bark, and partially buried tubes at different moisture levels
stable rocks and roots that cannot collapse during digging
dense low plants or artificial cover
one humid retreat and at least one slightly drier retreat
narrow, escape-proof door, vent, and cable gaps

Keep bark resting on supports rather than directly on an animal that can undermine it. Avoid aromatic cedar or pine, sharp gravel, calcium sand, fertilizer, pesticides, and waterlogged moss across the entire floor. Paper towel is useful during quarantine, but provide opaque tight hides because an exposed animal may refuse food.

🪳 Feeding

Use the feeding schedule as a starting point and adjust it from weight, growth, reproductive state, and uneaten prey. Offer adults appropriately sized invertebrates every 2-3 days; juveniles can receive smaller meals daily or every other day. Useful foods include small crickets, roaches, black soldier fly larvae, silkworms, bean beetles, small isopods, and occasional earthworms from a safe cultured source. Wild observations also record spiders and other forest-floor arthropods.

Prey should be no wider than the space between the lizard’s eyes. Rotate feeders, gut-load them for 24-48 hours, and remove uneaten prey before it can hide or bite the lizard. Avoid wild-caught insects from areas exposed to pesticides or parasites.

As a starting cadence rather than a fixed dose, dust most growing-animal meals and roughly every second or third adult meal lightly with plain calcium. Use calcium with D3 and a reptile multivitamin less often, following product strength, diet, measured UVB access, and veterinary advice. Heavy dusting and overlapping vitamin products are not safer.

🥚 Breeding notes

The species is viviparous and has a well-developed placenta. Published field data describe two to five young as typical, with rare litters up to eight; neonates measure roughly 35-38 mm snout-to-vent length. Some Costa Rican and Panamanian populations are all-female and parthenogenetic, while other populations contain males.

Do not deliberately breed unidentified localities or assume every female is parthenogenetic. Pregnancy places extra demands on calcium, hydration, and retreat choice. Separate newborns into escape-proof housing with tiny prey and document parentage and legal origin before transfer or sale.

🩺 Common problems

The main husbandry failures are overheating, persistently soaked substrate, stagnant air, dehydration inside an apparently humid enclosure, poor sheds around toes or the spectacle, calcium imbalance, and chronic stress from insufficient cover. Recent imports may carry internal or external parasites.

Monitor body weight rather than relying on how often this hidden species is seen. Persistent food refusal with weight loss, swollen joints, tremors, weakness, retained shed over the eye, abnormal feces, bubbles or noise while breathing, skin lesions, or an unexpectedly distended female require assessment by a reptile-experienced veterinarian. Do not attempt to peel material from the spectacle.

📌 Conclusion

Lepidophyma flavimaculatum suits a keeper who enjoys observing subtle nocturnal behavior and can maintain cool, humid microhabitats without sacrificing airflow. Have the mature enclosure, quarantine plan, tiny live food, and proof of legal origin ready before purchase; an animal that is constantly visible is more likely short of cover than unusually tame.