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Aspidoscelis tesselatus (SAY, 1822)

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Higher TaxaTeiidae, Teiinae, Gymnophthalmoidea, Sauria, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Common Checkered Whiptail, Diploid Colorado checkered whiptail
S: Huico Teselado 
SynonymAmeiva tesselata SAY 1822: 50
Cnemidophorus tesselatus — SMITH & BURGER 1949: 282
Cnemidophorus grahamii BAIRD & GIRARD 1852: 128
Cnemidophorus sex-lineatus var. tesselata — GÜNTHER 1885: 26
Cnemidophorus grahamii — MOCQUARD 1899: 315
Cnemidophorus tesselatus — VAN DENBURGH & SLEVIN 1921
Cnemidophorus grahamii — SMITH 1946
Cnemidophorus tesselatus — SMITH 1946
Cnemidophorus grahamii — JAMESON & FLURY 1949
Cnemidophorus tesselatus — SMITH & TAYLOR 1950: 188
Cnemidophorus tesselatus dixoni — STEBBINS 1985: 163
Cnemidophorus tesselatus — STEBBINS 1985: 163
Cnemidophorus tesselatus — MASLIN & SECOY 1986
Cnemidophorus tesselatus — CONANT & COLLINS 1991: 124
Cnemidophorus tesselatus — LINER 1994
Cnemidophorus grahami — DEGENHARDT et al. 1996
Aspidoscelis tesselata — REEDER et al. 2002
Aspidoscelis tesselata — COOPER et al. 2005
Aspidoscelis tesselata — JONES & LOVICH 2009: 390
Aspidoscelis tesselata — CROTHER et al. 2012
Aspidoscelis tesselatus — PYRON & BURBRINK 2013 
DistributionUSA (SE Colorado, New Mexico, W Texas, Nevada),
Mexico (NE Chihuahua, Coahuila)

Type locality: Arkansas River, near Castle Rock Creek, Colorado (= Beaver Creek, Fremont County). Neotype locality: juniper-grass/weed habitat with rocky soil at Higbee, Comanche National Grassland, Vogel Canyon Picnic Area and Trailhead, 22.3 km south of La Junta by Colorado Highway 109 to road 802, then 2.24 km west, then 2.4 km south to the trailhead and picnic area, Otero County, Colorado.  
ReproductionOviparous. Parthenogenetic diploid species. Most populations of this species arose by hybridization between C. tigris marmoratus and C. septemvittatus. Populations in SC-Colorado have resulted from futher hybridization with C. sexlineatus fide STEBBINS 1985. 
TypesNeotype: AMNH 141903, mature female, designated by Walker et al. 1997. Holotype: lost (fide SMITH & TAYLOR 1950)
Lectotype: USNM 3046 [grahamii]
Holotype: TCWC 40691; paratypes: TCWC, UCM, LACM, SRSU [dixoni] 
DiagnosisDiagnosis (tesselatus): “A parthenogenetic species of Cnemidophorus with the following dorsal color pattern features: SCPV, gray-tan to tan or gold, irregular in outline, interrupted, and/or fused with bars; CNVL, gray-tan to tan (absent in some forms) single irregular or doubled to partly doubled; SCLS, gray irregular and/or interrupted and fused with spots and/ or bars (integrity of lateral stripes may be partly or entirely lost in ontogeny of dorsal pattern); PSDL, spots either longitudinally fused into a supernumerary line or transversely expanded into bars; PDST, profusely spotted with some spots fused; PST, spotted and/or reticulated; and TP, black spots (scales) variable in number, size, and intensity by pattern class; scattered rather than arranged in the appearance of extensions of the dorsolateral and vertebral fields past the base of the tail (where sympatric with triploid pattern classes). Meristically distinct in the context of the preceding features of color pattern as follows: PAB, granular to slightly enlarged; MS, enlarged at the edge of the gular fold; COS, character states II, III, or IV (Zweifel, 1965) and LSG, count >30. (Walker et al. 1997)


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CommentSynonymy: A. dixoni has been considered as a synonym of A. tesselatus but recent authors appear to consider it as a valid species.

Distribution: Records from Mexico are not reliable according to SMITH & TAYLOR 1950. See also discussion in CROTHER 2000. Not listed for New Mexico by Degenhardt et al. 1996. Also reported from Arizona by Gloyd 1937. See map in Jones & Lovich 2009 
EtymologyNamed after Latin tesselatus = checkered, tiled, in reference to the mosaic adult color pattern. 
References
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  • Burt, Charles E. 1933. Some lizards from the Great Basin of the West and adjacent areas, with comments on the status of various forms. American Midland Naturalist 14: 228-250 - get paper here
  • Burt, Charles E. 1935. Further records of the ecology and distribution of amphibians and reptiles in the middle west. American Midland Naturalist 16 (3): 311-336 - get paper here
  • Cole, Charles J.; Painter, Charles W. (Charles Wilson), 1949-; Dessauer, Herbert C.; Taylor, Harry Leonard. 2007. Hybridization between the endangered unisexual gray-checkered whiptail lizard (Aspidoscelis dixoni) and the bisexual western whiptail lizard (Aspidoscelis tigris) in southwestern New Mexico. American Museum novitates (3555) - get paper here
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  • Mata-Silva, Vicente, Jerry D. Johnson, and Aurelio Ramirez-Bautista 2013. Comparison of Diets of Two Syntopic Lizards, Aspidoscelis marmorata and Aspidoscelis tesselata (Teiidae), from the Northern Chihuahuan Desert of Texas. Southwestern Naturalist Jun 2013, Vol. 58, No. 2: 209-215 - get paper here
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