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Project Noah Nature School
Aspidoscelis velox
Small lizard with 6-7 yellow/orange striped down back. Pale colored underbelly.
Dry arid climate near river that runs year round. Common in northern AZ.
Spotted on Jun 12, 2012
Submitted on Jun 14, 2012
6 Comments
Thanks again Jasonjones! I finally got around to looking at the link you provided and its awesome! I bookmarked it so I can use it in the future. I do believe this little guys is a Plateau Striped Whiptail. The range of this specie seems to be wide spread in the northern park of AZ. Thank you so much for your help everyone!
Thank you all! I agree about the skink comments. I haven't had a chance to check out your links but will do so shortly! I truly appreciate your help with the identification!
I have a field guide for AZ herps and it's co-authored by Thomas C. Brennan, who also seems to work on the website that Janson mentioned. From the photos and the range maps, it appears as though your lizard is one of two possible whiptails - the desert grassland whiptail (Aspidoscelis uniparens) or the plateau striped whiptail (Aspidoscelis velox). All other whiptails have spots or have ranges that are nowhere near your spotting. Sorry I can't narrow it down further. The only item they list to distinguish between the two I listed is the size difference in preanal pores. :-/
I would agree that it is a whiptail lizard of some sort. It does look similar to a six-lined racerunner, but there are a couple of other lizards that do look similar as well.
Guessing: six-lined racerunner
looks more like a 5 lined skink.