Its common name, “knob-scaled lizard”, refers to the bumpy, “knob-like” scales found on the upper portion of its body.

Males and females of X. grandis do not exhibit a significant difference in femur length or head shape.

Xenosaurus grandis appears to inhabit more dense tropical forests, where sunlight may not reach the ground as much.

Such a lifestyle suggests that the diets of these lizards might be opportunistic, and they eat whatever crawls or flies past or into their crevice.

[7] Their most frequent prey includes coleopterans (beetles), dipterans (flies), orthopterans (insects such as grasshoppers, crickets, weta, and locusts), and myriapods (terrestrial arthropods such as millipedes and centipedes).

[7] Due to its diet of Orthoptera and Lepitdoptera larvae, Xenosaurus grandis is an ambush predator.

[7] Xenosaurus grandis and the rest of the xenosaurids are viviparous, which means offspring are birthed live rather than in eggs.

[2] All the subspecies of Xenosaurus grandis live exclusively in rock crevices, which allows them to live in many habitats, including: xerophytic vegetation, tropical rainforests, cloud forests, oak forests, and tropical deciduous rainforests.

The greatest threats to the survival of the species in the wild are habitat destruction and trapping for international pet trade.

[1] Also, warmer temperatures in their habitat have been shown to cause greater mortality rates among the lizards, posing another potential threat to the species.

Currently the species is decreasing in population, which is thought to be primarily caused by human development destroying their habitat.