Atlas species information

Habitat

• Forest trees; retreat sites are beneath loose bark or in deep hollows, often on standing dead trees.
• Creviced rock outcrops, bluffs and rock tumbles, and associated scrubby vegetation.
• Coastlines and dunelands among rocks, driftwood, scrub and pohuehue.
• Primarily in lowland areas.

Description

• Brown, grey or olive with paler bands, blotches or stripes that are usually bright, and large blackish patches (especially on the intact tail).
• Usually with a narrow or broad pale stripe running from nostril to eye.
• Undersurface uniform.
• Mouth lining pink, tongue pink with grey tip.
• Eye greenish, brown or yellow and often very large.
• Measures 53-80 mm from snout tip to vent.
• Specimens from coastal duneland habitat are distinctly smaller (53-68 mm between snout and vent) than those from adjacent forest/rock bluff environments (68-80 mm between snout and vent).

Distribution

• Canterbury Plains and Banks Peninsula, to southern Marlborough.
• This species shows substantial variation in size related to geography.
• Often very abundant, and may form aggregations in large retreat sites.

Notes

• Lifespan can exceed 36 years.
• Long considered to be a junior synonym of Woodworthia maculatus, but validity as a separate species demonstrated by Hitchmough (1997).
• Known also by the tag name of Woodworthia aff maculatus "Canterbury".
• Notes about 2008-10 cycle of NZ threat classification for Reptiles (Hitchmough et al 2010): Secure on Motunau, threatened by development.
• Notes about 2012-14 cycle of NZ threat classification for Reptiles: (Hitchmough, et al.
• 2012): Lots of individuals suspected lost on the Port Hills and Banks Peninsula through the earthquakes and subsequent rock blasting.
• However, still widespread and relatively large population.
• Continued threats and decline from development (e.
• g.
• wind farms, forestry, fragmentation etc).
• Management qualifier triggered by biosecurity on Motunau.