Orange-throated whiptail

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Orange-throated whiptail
Cnemidophorus hyperythrus.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Family: Teiidae
Genus: Aspidoscelis
Species:
A. hyperythrus
Binomial name
Aspidoscelis hyperythrus
(Cope, 1863)
Subspecies [2] [3]

The orange-throated whiptail (Aspidoscelis hyperythrus) is a species of lizard in the family Teiidae. The species was previously placed in the genus Cnemidophorus . Three subspecies are recognized as being valid, including the nominotypical subspecies.

Contents

Geographic range

A. hyperythrus is native to southern California in the United States, and to the states of Baja California and Baja California Sur in Mexico. [2]

Description

A. hyperythrus has five or six light-colored stripes down a black, brown, or grey dorsal side. The middle stripe may be forked at both ends. The species is whitish-yellow or cream on the venter, and has an orange throat (females and juveniles may lack this character). Its head is yellow-brown to olive-colored, and its tongue is forked and flicked continually. It has a snout-to-vent length of 5–7.2 centimetres (2.0–2.8 in).

Juveniles of this species have cobalt blue legs and tails. The entire ventral surface of males, including the tail, may be orange, although gravid females may also have some orange especially lining the lower jaw. The colors are most distinct in the breeding season. Males have larger femoral pores than females.

Behavior

The orange-throated whiptail has a distinctive, jerking gait.

Etymology

The subspecific names, beldingi and schmidti, are in honor of American ornithologist Lyman Belding and American herpetologist Karl Patterson Schmidt, respectively. [4]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western whiptail</span> Species of lizard

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Texas spotted whiptail</span> Species of lizard

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The marbled whiptail is a species of lizard found in the United States, in southern New Mexico and Texas, and in northern Mexico, in Coahuila, Chihuahua and Durango.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Mexico whiptail</span> Species of reptile

The New Mexico whiptail is a female-only species of lizard found in New Mexico and Arizona in the southwestern United States, and in Chihuahua in northern Mexico. It is the official state reptile of New Mexico. It is one of many lizard species known to be parthenogenetic. Individuals of the species can be created either through the hybridization of the little striped whiptail and the western whiptail, or through the parthenogenetic reproduction of an adult New Mexico whiptail.

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The six-lined racerunner is a species of lizard native to the United States and Mexico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little striped whiptail</span> Species of lizard

The little striped whiptail is a species of lizard found in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. A significant amount of research was done on the species during the mid-1990s, with several new subspecies being added, many of which some sources consider to be distinct enough to warrant full species status, and the research is ongoing. It is called little to distinguish it from many other species known as striped whiptails and to indicate that it is the smallest of those species.

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<i>Aspidoscelis sackii</i> Species of lizard

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References

  1. IUCN (2016). "Aspidoscelis hyperythra". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2016. Retrieved 7 December 2016.
  2. 1 2 "Deletion of Cnemidophorus hyperythrus from Appendix II" (PDF). Consideration of Proposals for Amendments of Appendices I and II. CITES. Retrieved 2009-06-28.
  3. Species Aspidoscelis hyperythrus at The Reptile Database www.reptile-database.org.
  4. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN   978-1-4214-0135-5. (Aspidoscelis hyperythra beldingi, p. 22; A. h. schmidti, p. 236).

Further reading