Cnemidophorus inornatus, the Valid Name for the Little Striped Whiptail Lizard, with the Description of an Annectant Subspecies Ralph W. Axtell Copeia, Vol. 1961, No. 2. (Jun. 19, 1961), pp. 148-158. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0045-8511%2819610619%293%3A1961%3A2%3C148%3ACITVNF%3E2.0.CO%3B2-K Copeia is currently published by American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/journals/asih.html. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. The JSTOR Archive is a trusted digital repository providing for long-term preservation and access to leading academic journals and scholarly literature from around the world. The Archive is supported by libraries, scholarly societies, publishers, and foundations. It is an initiative of JSTOR, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to help the scholarly community take advantage of advances in technology. For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. http://www.jstor.org Wed Dec 12 18:45:48 2007 148 COPEIA, 1961, NO. 2 is tannish-gray above and white below in American Museum of Natural History diabola. and it is reddish above and below in (AMNH); M. Alvarez del Toro, Museo Zo- rubra. In rubra, the lower postocular is usu- ologic~de Tuxtla Gutierrez (MZTG); R. F. ally white, or white with a black anterior Inger, Chicago Natural History Museum margin, and the fourth upper labial generally (CNHM); H. M. Smith, University of Illinois has a white posterior border; but in diabola hluseum of Natural History (UIMNH); and both postoculars are entirely black and the C. F. Walker, University of Michigan Museum fourth upper labial is black to the posterior of Zoology (UMMZ). W. F. Blair also read the margin. Ventrals and subcaudals are more manuscript. We also wish to thank Mr. and numerous in diabola than in rubra. In rubra Mrs. G. E. Drewry for donation of the novel ventrals number 147 to 167, subcaudals 56-70. specimen. Numbers of ventrals and subcaudals of rubra Specimens examined (T. rubra).-Xuevo are graphically compared with those of dia- Leon: CNHM 30825. Tamaulipas-San Luzs bola in Figure l. Both counts are higher in Potosi: AMNH 66161,79960; UMMZ 107145- diabola than in any rubra. Clinal variation 46, 11 1042, 11 1044, 11 1046-52. Southern seems evident in the rubra populations for Puebla-Xorthern Oaxaca: AMNH 65141; both characters. The ventral count of diabola CNHM 105339, 105341, 105343; UIMNH might be interpreted as part of this cline, but 48562-63. Tehuantepec (Oaxaca) area: no such interpretation is possible with regard AhlNH 62644-45, 62922-25, 65884, 66796, to the subcaudals. The localities where rubra 66959, 68025, 68883; CNHM 82728, 105340, and diabola have been found are shown in 105342, 105344; UIMNH 3773-74, 36815, Figure 2, which indicates the samples grouped 37145-46, 48561; UMMZ 82728. Chiapas: in Figure 1. UIMNH 37991, 38041; UhlMZ 102239; Four other species of this genus are known MZTG 76, 259, 41 1, 425, 434, 435. from Texas. Three of these belong to the In addition, ventral and subcaudal counts nigriceps group and the other to the gracilis were included on the basis of published infor- group of Smith (1942). The latter group is mation for CNHhl 40813 from Nuevo Leon represented by T. gracilis, which has a conical (Smith, 1944). head with no black pigment, no nuchal collar, and six upper labials. The Texas representa- tives of the nigriceps group include nigriceps, which has no nuchal collar; atriceps, which SMITH,H. M. 1942. A resume of Mexican snakes of the genus Tantilla. Zoologica 2733-42. may have a faint nuchal collar but no pos- . 1944. Snakes of the Hooestraal Ex~edi- terior black border; and cucullata, which has tions to northern Mexico. Field Gus.Nat. kist., a black head and neck, but no light collar. Zool. Ser. 29:135-152. Acknowledgments.-We are grateful to the following people and institutions for the use of specimens: W. F. Blair, University of Texas Natural History Collection; C. M. Bogert, Cnernidophorus inornatus, the Valid Name for the Little Striped Whiptail Lizard, with the Description of an Annectant Subspecies N 1858, Spencer F. Baird described two of Pesqueria Grande (subsequently changed I lizards, Cnemidophorus inornatus and to Villa de Garcia), in the Mexican state of Cnemidophorus octolineatus, on the same Nuevo Leon. The two cotypes of C. inornatus page of the Proceedings of the Academy of (United States National Museum 3032), al- Natural Science of Philadelphia. Both new though in very poor condition, are rather species were collected by the same man (Lt. dark (deep brown from many years in pre- D. N. Couch) at the same locality-the village servative), completely unstriped lizards hav- ing 80 and 85 granular dorsal scale rows (ac- with the little striped whiptail. See both cording to Dr. Doris M. Cochran), while Burger (1950) and hlaslin et al. (1958) for the type of C. octolineatus (USNhl 3009) has comments on this problem. Burger (op. cit.) eight light stripes on a dark background and relegated C. octolineatus to the synonymy only 66 dorsal granules. of C. inornatus, thus being the first to in- brief history reviewing the nomen- dicate that these two lizards might be identi- clatorial association of C. inornatus and C. cal. The implication of the possible synonymy octolineatzts with each other, and with the of these two names has stirred considerable lizard comnlonly called the little striped skepticism among the interested saurologists. whiptail may be enlightening. The descrip- Do two different, closely related species live tions of both species (Baird, 1858:255) are at the original collecting site, or only one repeated below: dimorphic species? "Cnemidophorus inornatus, Baird- At the onset (1958) of preparation for my Scales on the gular fold smaller than those work on Texas lizards many systematic prob- on the breast anteriorly, and scarcely larger lems involving forms occurring within Texas than those on the middle of the chin. Scales have presented themselves. As the taxonomic of back tubercular and elevated. Hind feet status of C. inornatus was one of the most about two-fifths the head and body. Gen- controversial and insecure, I decided to visit eral color light greenish olive, paler be- the type locality of that species to try to neath. No lines on the body. answer the question of dimorphism posed Hab.-New Leon. Lt. Couch. Type No. above, and in doing so resolve our future use 3032. of the names C. inoi-natus and C. octoline- Cnemidopkoi-us octolineatus, Baird-Gu- atzis. On June 9 and 10, 1960, Michael Sabath lar fold as in the last. Hind foot not two- and I collected 14 (6 $ , 8 0 ), Cnemidopkorus fifths the head and body. Scales of back de- inovnntus fronl a group of wind formed, sandy pressed. General color light greenish olive, mounds (about eight feet high) across the Rio paler beneath. Back with eight equidistant Pesqueria from Villa de Garcia. Of these 14 and approximated light lines. specimens, six were completely unicolor Hab.-New Leon. Lt. Couch. Type No. brownish olive above, and eight were dis- 3009." tinctly striped with eight light lines on a Subsequently both names were retained by brownish gray to olive background. We found various authors until about 1906. after which six unicolor and five striped members of both they slipped, for unknown reasons, into the sexes living within a small dune area esti- synonymy of other Cnemidopkorzts. The two mated to be 30 yards wide by 100 yards long. names were consistently synonymized, always Approximately 100 yards southeast of the under different headings. Burt (1931:9) dunes, among several small mounds (not placed C. inornatus under Cnemidopkorus over one foot high), we took three more in- sexlineatus gularis, and C. octolinentus un- dividuals, but all of these were striped. This der Cnemidopkorus sexlineatus perplexzts. suggests that strong selection pressure may be Schmidt and Smith (19441I lifted octolineatus active outside the restricted dune area, but from synonymy to apply to a lizard occurring more evidence for this is needed. From in the mountainous regions of central Coa- cursory observation the ratio of striped huila, Mexico. Burger (1950) has more to unicolor individuals in the main dunes recentlv referred Schmidt and Smith's octo- population appeared to be one to one, and lineatus to Cnemzdopkovtts snckz semtfasci- the number of specimens collected by Sabath atus. Smith (1946) contributed to the already and myself (both morphotypes were in equal g~owingconfusion by using octolineatus as demand) tends to substantiate this observa- the subspecific name of yet another form of tion. Unicolored individuals were the same C. sackt, which recently has been identified color as, and therefore blended with the and described as a distinct subspecies (C. s. substratum. To my eye, unicolored lizards exsanguis) by Lowe (1956). The name C. were more difficult to trail than were the inornatus was brought out of syrlonylny by striped members. This might explain their Burger (1950) to become a substitute name relatively high survival rate in the main for C.