Avoiding being stung or bitten - prey capture behaviors of the ant-eating Texas horned lizard ().

Horned lizards () are specialized predators, including many species that primarily feed on seed harvester ants (). Harvester ants have strong mandibles to husk seeds or defensively bite, and a venomous sting. Texas horned lizards possess a blood plasma factor that neutralizes harvester ant venom and produce copious mucus in the pharynx and esophagus, thus embedding and incapacitating swallowed ants.

Horned lizards (Phrynosoma) incapacitate dangerous ant prey with mucus.

Horned lizards (Iguanidae, Phrynosomatinae, Phrynosoma) are morphologically specialized reptiles characterized by squat, tank-like bodies, short limbs, blunt snouts, spines and cranial horns, among other traits. They are unusual among lizards in the degree to which they specialize on a diet of ants, but exceptional in the number of pugnacious, highly venomous, stinging ants they consume, especially harvester ants (genus Pogonomyrmex). Like other iguanian lizards, they capture insect prey on the tongue, but unlike other lizards, they neither bite nor chew dangerous prey before swallowing.

Prey snapping and visual distance estimation in Texas horned lizards, Phrynosoma cornutum.

Captive Texas horned lizards were high-speed videotaped while feeding on ants in order to study the role of vision in facilitating tongue-protrusion capture of prey. Analysis of tongue movements revealed that prey snapping in these lizards is not a typical fixed-action pattern. By contrast, it is variable in performance and duration.

Phrynosoma intraepidermal receptor: A dorsal intraepidermal mechanoreceptor in horned lizards (Phrynosoma; Phrynosomatidae; Reptilia).

Horned lizards of seven species have intraepidermal sensory receptors on many dorsal body scales, some limb scales, and on head scales (supra- and infralabial, eyelid edges, frontal facing surfaces, and mental chin). These dome-shape scale receptors usually occur singly on keeled scales. Frequently, several receptor-bearing scales are grouped around an enlarged, receptor-bearing spine scale, thus forming multiple-scale complexes.