Lilford's Wall Lizard

Lilford's wall lizard grows to a maximum snout-to-vent length (SVL) of 8 cm (3 in), but adults are usually a little smaller than this. The tail is about 1.8 times as long as the body. It is a robust streamlined lizard with a short head and rounded body with smooth, unkeeled scales. The dorsal surface is usually greenish or brownish but varies much between different island subpopulations. There is usually a pale dorso-lateral stripe and there may be several dark streaks or three dark lines running along the spine. The flanks may be slightly reticulated and the underside is white, cream or pinkish. The throat may be blotched with darker colour. Juveniles sometimes have a blue tail.

Lilford's wall lizard is native to the Gymnesian Islands, including Mallorca, Menorca, the Cabrera Archipelago to the south of Mallorca, and the neighbouring rocky islets, which united into a single landmass during the colder periods of the Pleistocene. In historical times it has been extirpated from the two large islands and is now only present on the islets. It was never found on the Pityusic Islands, west of the Gymnesian Islands.

Lilford's wall lizard is a relatively tame lizard and easy to approach. It mainly feeds on insects, spiders and other arthropods, snails and some vegetable matter. This includes flowers and fruits, nectar and pollen. Some plants endemic to the Gymnesian Islands depend on this lizard for pollination. Other plants known to be pollinated by it include the mastic tree (Pistacia lentiscus), rock samphire (Crithmum maritimum), wild leek (Allium ampeloprasum), clustered carline thistle (Carlina corymbosa) and the sea daffodil (Pancratium maritimum). It is opportunistic around birds' nests in the use of scraps of food that have been regurgitated by gulls for their chicks. It also sometimes moves to the vicinity of nests of the Eleonora's falcon (Falco eleonorae) and feeds on the remains of its prey and the flies that accumulate around the nesting site. It is sometimes cannibalistic, eating juveniles and the tails of other lizards of its own species.

P. lilfordi is named in honour of Thomas Powys, 4th Baron Lilford, a British ornithologist who studied the fauna of the Balearics.