The New Mexico Whiptail, Cnemidophorus Neomexicanus (Squamata: Teiidae), in the Great Basin of North Central Utah
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Western North American Naturalist Volume 67 Number 3 Article 14 9-25-2007 The New Mexico whiptail, Cnemidophorus neomexicanus (Squamata: Teiidae), in the Great Basin of north central Utah George V. Oliver Utah Natural Heritage Program, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Salt Lake City, Utah John W. Wright Natural History Museum, Los Angeles, California Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/wnan Recommended Citation Oliver, George V. and Wright, John W. (2007) "The New Mexico whiptail, Cnemidophorus neomexicanus (Squamata: Teiidae), in the Great Basin of north central Utah," Western North American Naturalist: Vol. 67 : No. 3 , Article 14. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/wnan/vol67/iss3/14 This Note is brought to you for free and open access by the Western North American Naturalist Publications at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Western North American Naturalist by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Western North American Naturalist 67(3), © 2007, pp. 461–467 THE NEW MEXICO WHIPTAIL, CNEMIDOPHORUS NEOMEXICANUS (SQUAMATA: TEIIDAE), IN THE GREAT BASIN OF NORTH CENTRAL UTAH George V. Oliver1 and John W. Wright2 ABSTRACT.—We report the discovery of established populations of Cnemidophorus neomexicanus in the Salt Lake City area. These are the 1st records of this species in Utah and in the Great Basin and are far from all other known pop- ulations of the species. We conclude that C. neomexicanus was introduced in the Salt Lake City area, perhaps within the last 30 years. Key words: Cnemidophorus neomexicanus, whiptail, Utah, Great Basin. A single species of whiptail, Cnemidopho- the resurrected name Aspidoscelis Fitzinger, rus tigris Baird and Girard, 1852, the tiger (or 1843. Under their proposed arrangement, western) whiptail, has previously been reported Cnemidophorus neomexicanus would be Aspi- from the northern Great Basin of western doscelis neomexicana (Lowe and Zweifel, 1952). North America and from northern Utah. The Although many recent authors have followed presence of a 2nd species in this area was this arrangement, others have not (e.g., Taylor revealed when a captive whiptail from an 2002, Stebbins 2003, Axtell 2003, Persons 2005). urban area near Salt Lake City, which had In addition to the captive individual, which been submitted to the Utah Division of Wild- was from Lehi, Utah County, we found C. life Resources in August 2002, came to our neomexicanus at 2 other locations, both in Salt attention in July 2003. We examined this indi- Lake County: the northernmost part of Salt vidual and determined that it was Cnemido- Lake City, a short distance south of the bound- phorus neomexicanus Lowe and Zweifel, 1952, ary with the suburb of North Salt Lake and the New Mexico whiptail, which is a unisexual Davis County; and Sandy City, a suburb south (parthenogenetic) species. Subsequently, we of Salt Lake City. Two adults from the Salt Lake conducted field investigations in the Salt Lake City locality have been preserved as voucher City metropolitan area in 2003 and 2004 and specimens and deposited in the herpetological found that this species has established popula- collection of Brigham Young University (BYU tions in this urban area on the eastern edge of 48258, 48259); another adult from this locality the Great Basin in northern Utah. is shown in Figure 1 (see Appendix for exact For the purposes of this report, we employ locations and other data). the name Cnemidophorus neomexicanus. There These localities form a nearly straight north– had long been confusion and disagreement south line ~45 km long, with the Sandy City concerning the appropriate specific name for locality being approximately midway between this lizard (Wright 1969), but this dispute was the Lehi and Salt Lake City localities. All 3 sites resolved by Opinion 1929 of the International are within the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, Commission on Zoological Nomenclature the urban and suburban landscape that sur- (1999), which placed the name Cnemidophorus rounds and connects them being almost entirely neomexicanus on the Official List of Specific developed for residential, commercial, and in- Names in Zoology. Also, we note that Reeder dustrial purposes. et al. (2002) have proposed restricting Cnemi- The Lehi locality is a yard in a residential dophorus Wagler, 1830, to certain neotropical neighborhood. This locality is ~125 m from species and referred all species that naturally the near edge of the pavement of Interstate occur north of Guatemala and Honduras to Highway 15, and in addition to houses and 1Utah Natural Heritage Program, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, 1594 West North Temple, Salt Lake City, UT 84116. E-mail: [email protected] 2Curator Emeritus, Natural History Museum, Los Angeles, CA 90007. 461 462 WESTERN NORTH AMERICAN NATURALIST [Volume 67 Fig. 1. Cnemidophorus neomexicanus from Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah, captured 13 August 2004, snout–vent length 69 mm. Several characters diagnostic of the species (Wright and Lowe 1967, Wright 1971) are illus- trated: the vertebral (or middorsal) stripe is wavy and bifurcates at the occiput, and the circumorbital (or supraorbital) scales extend far forward. businesses, there are 3 schools, 3 parks, a range (Wright and Lowe 1968), for example in cemetery, and a gravel pit in the vicinity. Both El Paso, Texas (Cordes et al. 1989), and Albu- of the other sites where we found C. neomexi- querque, New Mexico (Christiansen et al. canus also are disturbed, especially the Salt 1971). In the urban area where they studied Lake City locality, which is along a road cut at this species, Christiansen et al. (1971) found the base of a steep hill and adjacent to a gravel that C. neomexicanus prefers areas disturbed quarry. Dumping of trash has occurred at this by human activities, and their observations locality, and in the immediate vicinity there agree well with ours in the Salt Lake City area. are other gravel quarries as well as oil refiner- That C. neomexicanus is successful in disturbed ies, railroad yards, businesses, homes, streets, urban settings is consistent with its usage of highways, and a park. The Sandy City locality, natural habitats, which, in addition to desert a suburban park, immediately adjoins a resi- grasslands, include riparian corridors perpetu- dential neighborhood. As with the Salt Lake ally disturbed by floods (Wright 1971). Review- City locality, a steep slope is present, the eroded ing the biology of C. neomexicanus, Wright bank of a deep ravine where bales of hay have (1971) noted that “the activities of man and his been used to control erosion. At both of these animals in disturbing habitats appears to favor latter locations, especially the Salt Lake City expansion of the range of the species.” site, vegetative cover is sparse and ruderal, Salt Lake City is far removed—to the north and at least 12 (52%) of the combined 23 plant and to the west—from all other known popu- species that we observed at these sites are not lations of C. neomexicanus (Fig. 2). This species native to North America (Appendix). occurs mainly in the Rio Grande Valley from Cnemidophorus neomexicanus is well known north central New Mexico to extreme western to inhabit urban situations within its natural Texas (El Paso), west of the Rio Grande to 2007] NOTE 463 r ive Salt Lake City rR ne v ie e rR Utah Gn e e r Colorado G Rio Grand e Colorado River err SSa ive an Juan R C Conchas a Lake n Little Colorado R. a d Petrified ia Forest N.P. n R iver Arizona Fort Sumner e r ive P R rand SaltSalt River e c New o s Rio G GilaG River Mexico R ila i River v e r areas of known occurrence area of hypothetical occurrence Texas 200 miles Chihuahua Candelaria 300 km Rio Grand e Fig. 2. General distribution of Cnemidophorus neomexicanus showing the newly discovered occurrence in the Salt Lake City area, Utah, relative to occurrences in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas (adapted from Axtell 1966, Wright 1971, Cole et al. 1988, Degenhardt et al. 1999, and Persons and Wright 1999). The species has not been detected on either side of the Rio Grande within the area indicated as hypothetical (see text). Lordsburg near the Arizona border in south- have thus far been unsuccessful (J.M. Walker, western New Mexico (Pough 1961), and south- personal communication, 2006). east along the Rio Grande to Candelaria, Texas Additionally, there are 3 populations that (Cordes et al. 1989), and presumably in ex- are considered widely disjunct from the main treme northern Chihuahua (Axtell 1966, Wright range of the species and that we believe have 1971), although continuous distribution between resulted from human introductions, notwith- El Paso and Candelaria has not been verified, standing the differing conclusions of others and efforts to find this species in Chihuahua regarding 2 of the populations. One of these is 464 WESTERN NORTH AMERICAN NATURALIST [Volume 67 in northeastern New Mexico at Conchas Lake, The Colorado River drainage and its deep San Miguel County, ~190 km east of the near- gorges also separate Salt Lake City from all est reported locality in the Rio Grande Valley other populations of C. neomexicanus. Even (Lueck et al. 1981). Walker et al. (1992), how- though C. neomexicanus commonly inhabits ever, argued that this population may be the riparian zones (e.g., Wright 1971) and C. tigris product of natural dispersal rather than artifi- occurs on both sides of the Colorado River, cial introduction and implied that it may not this large river and its gorges could present an be disjunct. Another of these disjunct popula- important obstacle to dispersal, especially for tions in New Mexico was recently discovered a species as young as C.