Aspidoscelis inornata
—
Little Striped Whiptail
Subspecies I've seen:
A. i. gypsi
Little White Whiptail
Aspidoscelis inornata gypsi
—
Little White Whiptail
I saw two or three of these colorful-in-a-pastel-sort-of-way whiptails as they noodled around in the white sand dunes. Unfortunately none of them had any interest in staying in one place for more than a second or two, and I was somewhat impatient to go look for the famous white lizards of White Sands, so I ended up with only cruddy whiptail pictures.
They're called "Little White Whiptails" because they are much paler than the other subspecies Aspidoscelis inornata, the better to match the color of the dunes.
Printed references:
- Behler, J. L., King, F. W. 1979. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles & Amphibians
- Crother, B. I. (ed.) 2017. Scientific and Standard English Names of Amphibians and Reptiles of North America North of Mexico, with Comments Regarding Confidence in Our Understanding, Eighth Edition
- Degenhardt, W. G., Painter, C. W., Price, A. H. 1996. Amphibians & Reptiles of New Mexico
- Smith, H. M. 1995. Handbook of Lizards: Lizards of the United States and Canada
- Stebbins, R. C. 2003. Peterson Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians, Third Edition