气候变化领域集成服务门户

We studied an array of diploid parthenogenetic Aspidoscelis tesselatus (Common Checkered Whiptail) at Carrizo Canyon Picnic Area (CCPA) in the Comanche National Grassland, Baca County, Colorado, USA. The CCPA locale represents the southeastern-most site in Colorado where adults of this species have been studied in the field and adequately sampled for laboratory analyses. We used dorsal color patterns and meristic characters in five juveniles and 13 adults collected in May 2017 from canyon rim habitat at CCPA to confirm their identities as A. tesselatus rather than the phenotypically similar triploid parthenogenetic species A. neotesselatus (Colorado Checkered Whiptail). Comparison of the CCPA specimens to samples of A. tesselatus from Ninemile Valley of the Purgatoire River in Otero County (n = 99), Colorado, collected from valley floor habitat, and Cottonwood Creek in Baca County (n = 15), Colorado, collected from juniper dominated habitat, revealed significant meristic (P = 0.05) and color pattern differences among the three arrays of pattern class C of the species. Aspidoscelis tesselatus in syntopy with A. sexlineatus viridis (Prairie Racerunner) at CCPA reflected the availability of narrow zones of gravelly to rocky ecotonal habitats bordering the east and west sides of the canyon, preferred by the former species, and contiguous Sand Sage Prairie habitats, preferred by the latter species. We considered it unlikely that foreseeable anthropogenic causations other than climate change would threaten the habitation of either A. tesselatus or A. sexlineatus viridis at CCPA, an area regulated by restrictive federal and state strictures and private land-use practices.