The desert night lizard is small for a reptile, with the average adult female at 80 mm in total length and 1.3 g in weight.

[citation needed] X. vigilis can be found along the Southwestern coast of the United States and northern regions of Mexico.

Smaller populations of X. vigilis have been found in western Arizona, some coastal ranges within Central California, Colorado, the Sierra Nevada, and Utah.

[citation needed] X. vigilis received its more common name 'yucca night lizard,' because of its frequent prevalence around plants of the Yucca genus, such as Joshua Trees.

[citation needed] X. vigilis is one of the few species of lizard or vertebrates that have this type of plant based habitat occupation.

While this lizard is widespread across various regions in the United States and Mexico, its local environmental settings seem standardized across its habitat range.

The desert night lizard avoids visibility and may select its habitat as an added layer of protection and obscurity from predatory species.

Unusually for a lizard, it forms family social groups with a father-mother pair and offspring, which may delay dispersing for years.

Socially, X. vigilis is a largely sedentary species of lizard that remains obscure and hidden from plain sight.

Improper diet and malnutrition often leads to underdeveloped ova and lacking yolk deposition within female desert night lizards.

One notable exception is that males experiencing drier climates and low resource settings have been shown to reach a greater level of testicular maturation.

Half of the embryo's weight gain is suspected to happen during the brief egg gestation period, from the oviduct wall to the placenta.