Type of Scales: Smooth, Granular scales

Reproduction type: Asexual (parthenogenesis)

Chihuahuan Spotted Whiptails are found in west Texas, central to southern New Mexico, and a small section in southeastern Arizona. This species grows to around a foot in length.

Diets include insects and other arthropods. They are often seen around campsites, usually actively searching and digging for invertebrates.

When they are threatened, they often try to outrun the danger and/or find shelter under rocks, in burrows and in plant masses.

Like some other species of whiptails, the Chihuahuan Spotted Whiptails are an unisex species and they breed by parthenogenesis. Their eggs are not fertilized by a male, in face the whole species is entirely made up of females. This is a great way to pass an individual's genes; your offspring has all of your genes and none of your mate's. Before recent studyes, they thought was that there is a cost to parthenogenesis. With each generation, the genetic load gets heavier. Mutations add up, and eventually enough deleterious mutation accumulate and extinction occurs. So remember the words of Scott Freeman and Jon C. Herron: "selection imposed by a changing environment can make sex beneficial!" (2001). Recent studies by researchers in Kansas suggest that Aspidoscelis tellestata can mitagate loss of genetic material by picking the most complete set of chromosomes. The same may occur in this species as well.

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