--- title: "Thorny Devil (Moloch horridus) | AnimalTracks.wiki" description: "Capillary skin channels that pull water from a puddle to its mouth, a spiny false head decoy, and big spines with no bone inside them." image: "https://animaltracks.wiki/images/animals/thorny-devil-1.webp" published: "2026-08-31" updated: "2026-09-14" --- # Thorny Devil (*Moloch horridus*) > **Status**: Checked against 7 sources, listed under Sources below. > **Tagline**: Capillary skin channels that pull water from a puddle to its mouth, a spiny false head decoy, and big spines with no bone inside them. > **Soundtrack Vibe**: Psychedelic Rock & Neo-Psych // King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, "The River" > **Soundtrack Links**: [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/3WRkPkZ5s0ySAncouLeP91) | [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUZn1I6llJs) > **Vibe Match**: Microtonal riffs and relentless driving motorik rhythms for a lizard that eats ants without a body lunge, each feeding event faster than in any other iguanian lizard studied by 2005. ## Biological Superpowers & Stats - **Taxonomy**: *Moloch horridus* - **Danger Level**: Low - **Conservation Status**: Least Concern ([IUCN Red List](https://doi.org/10.2305/iucn.uk.2017-3.rlts.t83492011a83492039.en)) - **Superpower**: Grooves between its scales collect water and carry it by capillary action, even against gravity, to the corners of its mouth. - **Habitat**: Dry sand country, spinifex grasslands and scrub across large parts of Western Australia, the southern Northern Territory, South Australia and western Queensland - **Diet**: Only ants, mainly Iridomyrmex and Crematogaster, caught by waiting near cover for them to pass along their trails; one can eat a thousand in a day - **Tags**: reptile, desert, arid, dragon-scales, insectivore, armored, camouflage ## Natural History & Behavior ## A Lizard Built Like a Pinecone The thorny devil (*Moloch horridus*) is a small, thorn-covered lizard of the Australian deserts, growing up to about 20 centimetres long. Females are larger than males, averaging 45.5 grams and reaching as much as 88.7 grams, while males average 31.2 grams. In the wild it can live up to 20 years. It ranges across large parts of Western Australia, the southern Northern Territory, South Australia and western Queensland, in sand country, spinifex grasslands and mulga scrub. ## A Sit-and-Wait Ant Eater A thorny devil eats only ants, mainly two groups, *Iridomyrmex* and *Crematogaster*. It finds a feeding site that has cover and waits for ants to pass along their trails, lapping them up with its short, sticky tongue. In a 2005 study its prey capture stood out, with no body lunge, a faster tongue, less handling of each ant and control over the slow opening of its jaws. Together these made a single feeding event faster than in any other iguanian lizard, its own lizard group, studied to that date. ## Skin That Carries Water Its scales carry a honeycomb-like micro-texture that lets it collect moisture over its entire body surface, and a complex system of capillary channels runs between them, moving water along passively, with no effort from the lizard. A droplet set on the skin of a live thorny devil spread evenly outward over more than 9.2 millimetres within about ten seconds, moving through roughly 1,600 channels. The channels are built in levels: a wide main channel between the scales, divided by protrusions into smaller channels that stretch the water's travel distance by about 39 percent. > **Water that climbs its legs** The grooves around its spines link up, letting water move along its body by capillary action, even against gravity as on the legs. They continue onto the head and empty into the corners of its mouth for drinking. Filling that whole system takes a volume of water equal to about 3.19 percent of the lizard's body mass, and standing in water it can then drink from that skin-held water at roughly 0.7 microlitres per jaw movement. Condensation from warm, moist air onto a cool thorny devil provided water equal to about 0.22 percent of its body weight, which was not enough for drinking, and standing on nearly saturated moist sand could only fill the channels to 59 percent of capacity, with no drinking recorded. The researchers suggest that rain and moist sand seem to be its likely regular water sources. ## A Fake Head and Boneless Spikes Golden and brown patches camouflage a thorny devil so well that it can escape detection even at close quarters, and it can change colour to blend into its surroundings. Its large spines are entirely boneless; only two, on the skull, sit on small bony bumps. Its slow, rocking walk might confuse predators that spot it in the open. If a predator such as a goanna, an Australian bustard or a black-breasted buzzard closes in, the thorny devil tucks its real head down between its front legs and presents a spiny false head on the back of its neck instead, making it difficult for anything to swallow it. When threatened, it can also puff itself up with air, making it harder to handle. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### How does a thorny devil's skin help it drink? A network of channels between its overlapping scales carries water by capillary action across a thorny devil's skin to its mouth. A droplet set on the skin of a live thorny devil spread evenly outward over more than 9.2 millimetres within about ten seconds, moving through roughly 1,600 of those channels. The channels are built in levels: a wide main channel between the scales, divided by protrusions into smaller channels that stretch the water's travel distance by about 39 percent. *(Source: [Comanns et al. 2017]())* ### Can a thorny devil drink from condensation on its skin? Not in one study's tests. Filling the capillary system across its skin takes a volume of water equal to about 3.19 percent of its body mass, and standing in water it can then drink from that skin-held water at roughly 0.7 microlitres per jaw movement. Condensation from warm, moist air onto a cool thorny devil provided water equal to about 0.22 percent of its body weight, which was not enough for drinking. Standing on nearly saturated moist sand filled the channels to only 59 percent of their capacity, and the lizards did not drink. The researchers suggest that rain and moist sand seem to be its likely regular water sources. *(Source: [Comanns et al. 2016]())* ### What is a thorny devil's false head for? A thorny devil has a prominent, spiny false head. When threatened by a predator such as an Australian bustard, a black-breasted buzzard or a goanna, the thorny devil tucks its real head down between its forelegs and presents this false head instead, making it difficult for the attacker to swallow it. *(Source: [Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan]())* ### How many ants does a thorny devil eat in a day? Thorny devils eat only ants. One finds a feeding site that has cover and waits for ants to pass along their trails, lapping them up with its short, sticky tongue. Ants are relatively low in nutritional value, but a thorny devil has a large stomach, and in one day an individual can eat a thousand. *(Source: [Bush Heritage Australia]())* ## Sources 1. [Moloch horridus (thorny devil). Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan.]() 2. [Thorny Devils. Bush Heritage Australia.]() 3. [Comanns et al. (2017). Adsorption and movement of water by skin of the Australian thorny devil (Agamidae: Moloch horridus). Royal Society Open Science.]() 4. [Comanns et al. (2011). Moisture harvesting and water transport through specialized micro-structures on the integument of lizards. Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology.]() 5. [Comanns et al. (2016). Cutaneous water collection by a moisture-harvesting lizard, the thorny devil (Moloch horridus). Journal of Experimental Biology.]() 6. [Meyers & Herrel (2005). Prey capture kinematics of ant-eating lizards. Journal of Experimental Biology.]() 7. [Doughty et al. (2017). Moloch horridus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2017: e.T83492011A83492039.]() *Published August 31, 2026. 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