Canyon Spotted Whiptail

Diagnosis. Related to C. perplexus, but with a tendency toward a reversal of the typical color pattern. The young are five-lined; brownish or tan dots on a dark-brown background between much widened, bright, cream-colored, lateral lines, and between the dorso-lateral and the broad, lavender, median lines. Most of the older specimens lose practically all trace of the dots and the pair of lateral lines on each side are strongly intensified, while the median becomes dim lavender to reddish in color. The ground color becomes dark or light reddish-brown.

Cnemidophorus burti is a large whiptail lizard. It occurs in mesas, canyons, and riparian areas in arid and semi-arid regions of the Southwestern United States and Northwestern Mexico (Stebbins 2003). Juveniles display light longitudinal stripes and spots on a dark background. This pattern becomes less distinct in adults as the light color fades with age (Stebbins 2003, Degenhardt et al. 2005). Based on the result of a phylogenetic analysis by Reeder et al. (2002), this lizard is now commonly treated under the name Aspidoscelis burti.

The canyon spotted whiptail (Aspidoscelis burti) is a species of lizard in the family Teiidae. The species is native to northwestern Mexico and the adjacent southwestern United States.