This is an adult female northern brown basilisk.
I was totally enthralled when, some 25 years ago, I saw my first northern brown basilisk, Basiliscus vittatus, in Florida. I had been told that they were then tenuously established, but until then I had not seen one. The fact that the example that was then in front of me, resting quietly but attentively on a blade of grass overhanging a canal, was a hatchling disclosed that at least one pair of breeders could not be too far away. Although I did not find additional examples on that trip, when, a few weeks later I again visited South Florida, I happened upon a number of these intriguing lizards of all size classes in Miami-Dade’s Tropical Park

Today (2016) this 2 foot long lizard with the cranial crest (males) and strongly defined vertebral and mid-caudal ridge are locally distributed in Palm Beach and Martin counties are now common in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

The predominant color is brown. Yellow facial and dorsolateral stripes (the latter best defined anteriorly) are usually easily visible. A second yellow stripe, sometimes interrupted, parallels the upper jaw line and continues rearward to the shoulder. Darker crossbands, best defined above the uppermore yellow stripes may be present. Females are smaller than the males, lack the cranial crest but do have a lobe on the back of the head and the stripes are more faded or even absent. Both sexes will be darkest and most poorly marked when cold, at night, or when frightened.

Insects, small frogs and other lizards, form the diet of these pet trade lizards. The species native range is from northeastern Mexico to northern Colombia.