ISSN 0038-3872 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES ULLETIN Volume 99 Number 1 **** BCAS-A99(1) 1-58 (2000) APRIL 2000 Southern California Academy of Sciences Founded 6 November 1891, incorporated 17 May 1907 © Southern California Academy of Sciences, 2000 OFFICERS David Huckaby, President Robert S. Grove, Vice-President Susan E. Yoder, Secretary Daniel A. Guthrie, Treasurer Daniel A. Guthrie, Editor Hans Bozler, Past President David Soltz, Past President BOARD OF DIRECTORS 1997-2000 1998-2001 1999-2002 Robert S. Grove Kathryn A. Dickson Ralph G. Appy David Huckaby Donn Gorsline Jonathan N. Raskin Robert Lavenberg Robert F Phalen John W. Roberts Kenneth E. Phillips Daniel Pondella Tetsuo Otsuki Susan E. Yoder Cheryl C. Swift Gloria J. Takahashi Membership is open to scholars in the fields of natural and social sciences, and to any person interested in the advancement of science. Dues for membership, changes of address, and requests for missing numbers lost in shipment should be addressed to: Southern California Academy of Sciences, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Exposition Park, Los Angeles, California 90007-4000. Professional Members $35.00 Student Members 20.00 Memberships in other categories are available on request. Fellows: Elected by the Board of Directors for meritorious services. The Bulletin is published three times each year by the Academy. Manuscripts for publication should be .sent to the appropriate editor as explained in "Instructions for Authors'' on the inside back cover of each number. All other communications should be addressed to the Southern California Academy of Sciences in care of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Exposition Park, Los Angeles, California 90007-4000. Date ot this issue 3 April J(M)() % This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of PapeO- 6 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 2000 ANNUAL MEETING May 19-20, 2000 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CALIFORNIA SYMPOSIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Understanding the Urban Influence on Santa Monica Bay MAY 1 5 2000 organized by Steve Bay (SCCWRP), (714) 894-2222 LIBRARY Coastal Habitat Restoration organized by Ralph Appy (Port of Los Angeles) (310) 732-4643 The Ecology of Kelp Beds in Southern California organized by Bob Grove (SoCal Edison) (626) 302-9735 Research at Public Aquaria organized by Judy Lemus (USC Sea Grant) (213) 740-1965 New and Rare Fish and Invertebrate Species in California during the 1997-98 El Nino organized by Jim Allen (SCCWRP) (714) 894-2222 Conservation of California Lichens organized by D. L. Magney (Consultant, California Lichen Society) (805) 646-6045 Los Angeles River Symposium organized by Tina Hartney (Occidental College) [email protected] There will be additional sessions of Invited Papers and Posters and of papers by Junior Academy members. For further information on registration see the Southern California Academy of Science web page at: www.lam.mus.ca.us/~scas/ or contact [email protected] PLENARY ADDRESSES: Plenary Sessions will occur each day at 1 1 a.m. Speakers will be; Friday: Wheeler North, "Kelp Beds of San Diego, Orange and Los Angeles Counties: Past, Present and Future Considerations." Saturday: Joan Greenwood, "Friends of the Los Angeles River, River Watch; Addressing Wa- tershed Issues in the New Millenium." Bull. Southern California Acad. Sci. 99(1), 2000, pp. 1-24 © Southern California Academy of Sciences, 2000 The Range, Habitat Requirements, and Abundance of the Orange-throated Whiptail, Cnemidophorus hyperythrus beldingi Bayard H. Brattstrom Department of Biology, California State University, Fullerton, CA 92834-6850 Abstract. —A survey was done over a 2^/^ year period on the Orange-throated Whiptail, Cnemidophorus hyperythrus beldingi, throughout its range in Southern CaUfomia. The species has been presumed to be threatened by loss of habitat due to human activity. The study included determining the lizard's past and present distribution from museum and California Department of Fish and Game records, the literature, questionnaires, correspondence, and field surveys. Field surveys also were used to evaluate lizard habitat requirements and abundance. Detailed studies at the population level and laboratory and field studies on habitat require- ments and behavior rounded out the study. The range of the species can be defined as below 853m (2800 ft) elevation, with one record to 1058m (3,475 ft), from coastal and foothill Orange County, and from the Corona-Riverside-Colton areas of Riverside County southward through the Elsinore and Ferris Basins, through all of the coastal and low ele- vation, San Diego County. Within its range, the Orange-throated Whiptail occurs primarily in open (50% cover) Coastal Sage Scrub vegetation, associated with Buckwheat (Eriogonium fasciculatum), low, open Chamise Adenostoma fascicu- latum). White Sage and Black Sage (Salvia apiana and S. mellifera). The lizard also occurs in open chaparral, along the edge of open, dry, riparian areas, along trails, along dirt roads, and in areas of light off-road vehicle use. This study has tripled the number of locations at which the lizard is known to occur, and has shown, by field work or correspondence, that the lizard still exists at 96% of all known localities. The whiptail occurs in large numbers locally (10- 40 whiptails/hectare). A minimum estimate of 1 million Orange-throated Whip- tails occur in the area of its range occupied by Coastal Sage Scrub and 10.1 million individuals within the area of the total range for this species in California. Even if these are over-estimates, they are over by a great many times the number needed in order to consider the species endangered. Estimates of habitat remaining for the species, range from 80-90% of values in 1900. The lizard does not meet any of the current criteria for listing as Rare, Threatened, Endangered, or Vul- nerable. It is therefore not recommended for listing. Instead, Coastal Sage Scrub habitat should be protected wherever possible in open space and reserves. The Orange-throated Whiptail Lizard, Cnemidophorus hyperythrus beldingi, a small striped teiid lizard, is listed in California as a "Species of Special Concern" (Natural Diversity Data Base 1994) and is a Federal Species of Concern (Federal Register 1996). The Orange-throated Whiptail, hereafter referred to as whiptail or lizard, is the northern named subspecies of a series of subspecies that range from Orange and Riverside Counties, southward through San Diego County to the tip of Baja Cal- 2 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES ifomia and on some adjacent islands (Burt 1931; Murray 1955; Walker and Taylor 1968). According to Bostic (1965, 1966 a,c) and McGurty (1980), the lizard occurs primarily in open coastal sage scrub vegetation. Termites constitute 57-95% of the whiptail's diet (Bostic 1966a). Additional foods consist of other soft-bodied arthropods such as spiders and insect larvae. The whiptail feeds by actively for- aging in the leaf litter at the base of shrubs. The whiptail has been found active every month of the year when soil tem- perature and air temperature are high (Bostic 1966b,c; Rowland 1992; Rowland and Brattstrom in prep.). It is a lizard with high thermal preference (36.8-41.6°C x: 39.0°C; Brattstrom 1965), and hence is active on very warm, but not excessively hot days. The adults are especially active in the spring, with activity decreasing by mid-July. Young are hatched in August through October and are active through November, or if weather permits until December (Rowland and Brattstrom, un- published data; Bostic 1966b). Adults are less active in the fall. The lizard occurs in habitats that have been modified for agriculture and graz- ing, and in natural habitats that have been declining rapidly because of increasing human population impacts such as housing, highways and industrial development. With the presumed destruction of its natural habitat, the current distribution and population numbers of the whiptail were not known, hence the need for this study. Materials and Methods The Orange-throated Whiptail Lizard, Cnemidophorus hyperythrus beldingi, was studied in Orange, Riverside, San Diego, and San Bernardino Counties, Cal- ifornia. Additional specific studies were done on three military bases: Miramar Naval Air Station, Fallbrook Naval Weapons Station, and Camp Pendleton (all in San Diego County); as well as a detailed mark and recapture study (Rowland 1992). All laboratory, field activities, and research were done with a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) from the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG), the Guidelines for Use of Live Amphibians and Reptiles in Field Re- search of the ASIH, HL, and SSAR (as published in the Journal of Herpetology, supplement, 1987), the Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Lab Animals (Rev. Ed., Sept. 1986), and the California State University, Ful- lerton. Animal Care, Committee Policies of the Office of Faculty Research. To determine the past distribution of the whiptail, the distributional localities were obtained from museum records, the literature, and the California Natural Diversity Database (NDDB). Data were compiled and placed in RiBase 5000. A fist of locaHties is available from the author. Locality data have been recorded on DeLorme maps, which consist of four 7.5 minute USGS Topo Maps. Locality data for the mihtary bases have been placed into the U.S. Navy GIS Data Base only. All localities were also incorporated into OSUMAP software Geographic Information System (GIS). Records collected by Brian Mcgurty (to 1980) and Mark Jennings (to 1982) have been verified, sometimes corrected, and incorpo- rated herein. Major United ^States and several local museum and university records were examined (see Brattstrom 1993, for list). To determine the present distribution and abundance of this lizard, the historical distributional data and GIS maps of vegetation, soils, past fire history and current BIOLOGY OF THE ORANGE-THROATED WHIPTAIL 3 land use were prepared.