Italian wall lizard
species of reptile
The Italian wall lizard or ruin lizard (Podarcis siculus, from the Greek meaning foot and agile), is a species of lizard in the family Lacertidae. P. siculus is native to southern and southeastern Europe, but has also been introduced elsewhere in the continent, as well as North America, where it is a possible invasive species. P. siculus is a habitat generalist and can thrive in natural and human-modified environments. Similarly, P. siculus has a generalized diet as well, allowing it to have its large range.
P. siculus is notable for having many subspecies within its large range. Studies evidence how rapidly P. siculus subspecies can become distinguishable from larger populations given geographic isolation. A 2008 study detailed distinct morphological and behavioral changes in a P. siculus population indicative of "rapid evolution".
P. siculus is a sexually dimorphic lizard species whose physical description varies across its subspecies, but it generally has a green or brown back and white or green belly. It is also oviparous, meaning females lay eggs, and they lay 3 or 4 clutches per year.
Taxonomy
Subspecies and hybridization
P. siculus contains dozens of subspecies.
“Italian wall lizard” enters the record as species of reptile. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Italian, wall and lizard can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Italian wall lizard” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Italian, wall and lizard provides the most credible route into that argument.
Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1641251. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2008.
Current terminology should not be projected backward without checking the classification used when the underlying evidence was created. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Italian wall lizard” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.