Six-lined Racerunner

Scientific Name: Cnemidophorus sexlineatus

Photo Credit: Todd Pierson

Eastern North Carolina's six‑lined racerunner averages between 6 and 9½ inches in length. Its body features six pale stripes in yellow, white, gray, or light blue, running from neck to tail. Adult males display a blue belly while juveniles share the same striping pattern.

These lizards are active insect hunters, consuming grasshoppers, spiders, caterpillars, beetles, and other arthropods. They prefer ground-level habitats in open, sunny areas with sandy or loose soil such as fields, dunes, forest clearings, and floodplains across much of North Carolina including the Piedmont and central to southern Coastal Plain .

Courtship and breeding take place in spring through early summer (April–June), during which males develop deeper blue coloring under their bodies. Females lay between two and eight eggs in shallow burrows or sawdust piles, with hatchlings emerging from late June to early September. Many females produce more than one clutch per season.

Racerunners are mostly active during the heat of the day. They move quickly across open terrain and will dart into vegetation, under rocks or into burrows if threatened, which earned them their name. Their typical season runs from spring until cold weather arrives, after which they rest underground until the next year.

These fast-moving, ground-dwelling lizards never climb trees and can reach speeds up to 18 mph, making them hard to catch. They are solitary, often maintain exclusive home ranges, and use swift movement and autocentric defenses such as abandoning their tail to evade predators.

Explore the full species profile, including their habitat, diet, and behavior on Herps of NC.