Beaded lizards are immune to the effects of their own venom.

It looks a lot like the Mexican beaded lizard, which is its closest relative.

The beaded lizard is surrounded by myth and superstition in much of its native range.

The beaded lizard has a short tail which is used to store fat so the animal can survive during months of estivation.

The Guatemalan beaded lizard: endangered inhabitant of a unique ecosystem.

The Mexican beaded lizard is one of the few with a poisonous bite, but males do not employ it when wrestling each other.

There are only two kinds of poisonous lizards, the gila monster, seen here, and the similar but larger beaded lizard.

The beaded lizard's scales are small, bead-like and non-overlapping.

There are four subspecies of beaded lizard:

The beaded lizard's venom is a weak hemotoxin and although human deaths are rare, it can cause respiratory failure.

Gila monsters and beaded lizards are generally nocturnal and hunt mainly on the ground.

Gila monster and Mexican beaded lizard.

The beaded lizard becomes sexually mature at six to eight years of age and mates between September and October.

The beaded lizard is a specialized vertebrate nest predator feeding primarily on bird and reptile eggs.

Besides helothermine the venom of the Mexican beaded lizard also contains at least three other toxins and several enzymes.

The specific toxins of the Mexican beaded lizard are probably evolved to immobilize preys, as these lizards move very slowly themselves.

Envenomation by a wild Guatemalan beaded lizard Heloderma horridum charlesbogerti.

It is the only species in the family Lanthanotidae, a group related to the true monitor lizards, as well as to the beaded lizards.

The venom glands of the beaded lizard are modified salivary glands located in the animal's lower jaw.

When biting, the beaded lizard hangs on its victim and chews in order to get its venomous saliva into the wound.

Helodermatids (or beaded lizards) are large, stocky, slow-moving reptiles that prefer semi-arid habitats.

They are the gila monster and the beaded lizard, from Mexico and the southern states of the USA.

The venoms of the Gila monster and beaded lizard are not usually deadly, but they can inflict extremely painful bites due to powerful jaws.

Family Helodermatidae (Gila monsters and beaded lizards)

The lizard collection is now made up of beaded lizards, Caiman lizards, and a Parson's chameleon.

The type species is Heloderma horridum, which was first described in 1829 by Arend Weigmann.

Envenomation by a wild Guatemalan beaded lizard Heloderma horridum charlesbogerti.

Mexican beaded lizard (Heloderma horridum horridum) (Wiegmann, 1829)

The beaded lizard (Heloderma horridum) is a species of venomous lizard found principally in Mexico and southern Guatemala.

The toxin is very similar in structure to the one used by the Mexican beaded lizard (Heloderma horridum), but evolved independently, however, from the same precursor protein.

Its eggs are a food source for the equally threatened Motagua Valley beaded lizard (Heloderma horridum charlesbogerti), thereby possibly linking the status of the two species.

Notes on the distribution of the endangered lizard, Heloderma horridum charlesbogerti, in the dry forests of eastern Guatemala: an application of multi-criteria evaluation to conservation.

It also contains the peptide ablomin which is highly similar in amino acid sequence to that of the venom, helothermine, of the beaded lizard (Heloderma horridum).

Helothermine (or HLTx) is a toxin from the venom of the Mexican beaded lizard Heloderma horridum horridum.

Twenty-one reptiles and amphibians were named after Mr. Bogert by his colleagues, the last one a subspecies of the venomous Mexican beaded lizard called heloderma horridum charlesbogerti, said his wife.

Notes on the Distribution of the Endangered Lizard, Heloderma horridum charlesbogerti, in the Dry Forests of Eastern Guatemala: An Application of Multi-criteria Evaluation to Conservation.

The Motagua Valley beaded lizard, Heloderma horridum charlesbogerti, is a highly endangered subspecies of beaded lizard, a venomous lizard endemic to the dry forests of the Motagua Valley in southeastern Guatemala.

Fewer than 200 individual animals remain in the dry forest habitat of the Motagua Valley and this subspecies of beaded lizard (Heloderma horridum charlesbogerti) was facing extinction due to local extermination and loss of habitat for agricultural purposes.