Type of Scales: Smooth, Granular scales

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. This is a great way to pass an individual's genes; your offspring has all of your genes and none of your mate's. But there is a cost. 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).

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