THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY
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Reptilia    Squamata (part-other lizards)    Teiidae  

Chihuahuan Spotted Whiptail
Aspidoscelis exsanguis (Lowe, 1956)
as-pid-OSS-uh-lis — ex-SANG-wis

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 There are no current SSAR comments for this taxon.

(,   Museum Voucher) (,   Observation) (,   Literature Record), (,   Citizen Science), (  Fossil)
Open icons indicate questionable records, including those with coordinate uncertainty greater than 10,000 m (approximately 6 miles); click a marker to view record details.
Occurrences:; 8,360 Total; 6,233 Museum; 2,127 Other
The locality database contains 8,049,983 records, and geographic and taxonomic errors exist. Click a marker to display its metadata. Logged-in, registered users may report a potential issue directly from the marker popup.
Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH. - (Version: 2023.04.08.10.33.10)
Download map data (GeoJSON):
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Province/State Distribution:
United States: Arizona New Mexico Texas

Taxonomic Etymology:
A pale or washed-out lizard found in arid regions of the U.S. Southwest and Mexico.
Aspidoscelis — Greek for “shield leg.”
exsanguis — Latin exsanguis = “bloodless” — referring to the lizard’s pale or faded coloration.

First instance(s) of published English names:
No historic English names have been assigned to this taxon yet.

Taxon Links:

  
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
  
The Reptile Database
  
NatureServe
  
iNaturalist
  
GenBank
  
USGS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

Selected References:
1931 Burt, Charles E. A study of the teiid lizards of the genus Cnemidophorus with special reference to their phylogenetic relationships. Bulletin of the United States National Museum (154):1-286
1956 Lowe, Charles H., Jr. A new species and a new subspecies of whiptail lizards (genus Cnemidophorus) of the inland Southwest. Bulletin of the Chicago Academy of Sciences 10(9):137-150
1970 Gorman, George C. Chromosomes and the systematics of the family Teiidae (Sauria, Reptilia). Copeia 1970(2):230-245
1971 Neaves, William B. Tetraploidy in a hybrid lizard of the genus Cnemidophorus (Teiidae). Breviora (381):1-25
1973 Lucchino, Ronald V. Biochemical comparison of two sibling species: Cnemidophorus exsanguis and Cnemidophorus sonorae (Sauria: Teiidae). Journal of Herpetology 7(4):379-380
1991 Stuart, James N. Cnemidophorus exsanguis. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (516):1-4
2002 Reeder, Tod W., Charles J. Cole, and Herbert C. Dessauer. Phylogenetic relationships of Whiptail lizards of the genus Cnemidophorus (Squamata: Teiidae): A test of monophyly, reevaluation of karyotypic evolution, and review of hybrid origins. American Museum Novitates (3365):1-61
2015 Cole, Charles J. Harry L. Taylor, and Carol R. Townsend. Morphological variation in a unisexual whiptail lizard (Aspidoscelis exsanguis) and one of its bisexual parental species (Aspidoscelis inornata) (Reptilia: Squamata: Teiidae): Is the clonal species less variable? American Museum Novitates (3849):1-20
2025 Taylor, Harry L., William B. Neaves, Diana P. Baumann, Charles J. Cole, and Peter Bauman. Two new color-pattern classes in the parthenogenetic Teiid Lizard Aspidoscelis exsanguis (Chihuahuan Spotted Whiptail), their ontogenetic origins, and a redefinition of pattern class T. Herpetological Review 55(3):341–349

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Monday 10 August 2026 03:02 CT