North GroundHuntNorth Ground Hunt — return to North Ground
Species authority page

Eastern glass lizard

Ophisaurus ventralis · Lizards · Reptiles

Eastern glass lizard (Ophisaurus ventralis): Legless, with eyelids, external ear openings and lateral grooves; tail usually over twice the snout-vent length; 45-108 cm, the longest lizard in North America. Adults dark green above with many black lines running from head to tail, yellow below, usually with white marks on the neck and back. This profile does not establish whether taking it is legal anywhere.

Check rules for a place and date

Certified rules currently represented in Hunt: coverage in development. This is coverage, not a legal answer.

Scientific name
Ophisaurus ventralis
Family
Anguidae
In North America
Native
Range
Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains: Florida, most of Georgia and South Carolina, coastal North Carolina and southeastern Virginia, west along the Gulf coast to eastern Louisiana. Not in Canada.
Biology

How to identify it

Legless, with eyelids, external ear openings and lateral grooves; tail usually over twice the snout-vent length; 45-108 cm, the longest lizard in North America. [1][2]

Adults dark green above with many black lines running from head to tail, yellow below, usually with white marks on the neck and back. [1][2]

No stripe on the middle of the back and none below the lateral grooves; juveniles tan. [1][2]

Females greener; males yellowish-green with broader stripes and gold or brown speckles. [1][2]

Compared with the slender glass lizard: Slender glass lizard has a dark middorsal stripe or dashes and stripes below the lateral groove; eastern has neither. [1][2]

Compared with the snakes (legless look-alikes): Glass lizards have eyelids and ear openings; snakes do not. [1][2]

Species it is confused with

Check these before deciding what you are looking at. If you are not certain what it is, do not shoot.

Field notes

  • Identification Confirm a eastern glass lizard before you act. Compared with the slender glass lizard: Slender glass lizard has a dark middorsal stripe or dashes and stripes below the lateral groove; eastern has neither.[1][2]
Field knowledge

Where it lives

Moist and dry areas, especially damp grassy areas, pine flatwoods, maritime forest and sandy friable soils near ponds, marshes and estuaries. [1][2]

Field knowledge

How it behaves

Crepuscular; hunts at dawn, dusk or after rain, mostly burrowing through loose soil; may bask mid-morning or early evening on roads or open ground. [1][2]

Eats insects (grasshoppers mainly), spiders, worms, slugs and snails, and sometimes bird eggs, snakes and lizards. [1][2]

Brumates in burrows below the frost line; mostly solitary. [1][2]

Regulatory handoff

Limited legal take

Legal take of this species exists only under narrow conditions — a quota, a draw, a permit, a small area, or animals released or held on private land — set by the authorities below. Nowhere else is a legal opportunity implied, and Hunt shows one only where a certified rule establishes it.

Where legal take is listed

Being listed is not an open season. Seasons, zones, licences, methods and limits decide whether this animal may be taken on a given day and place — check Hunt or the authority before you go. Listings read 2026-09-30.

Geospatial intelligence

Where it is found

Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains: Florida, most of Georgia and South Carolina, coastal North Carolina and southeastern Virginia, west along the Gulf coast to eastern Louisiana. Not in Canada.

Biology

Sources

Every claim above is attributed to one of these published sources.

  1. NatureServe · reviewed 2026-09-30

    NatureServe

  2. University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, Animal Diversity Web · reviewed 2026-09-30

    University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, Animal Diversity Web