"Desert Grassland Whiptail - Virgin Birth Perfected

The Desert Grasslands Whiptail is very common here in the Portal, Arizona area. It is a true sign of the heat of summer as it is often one of the later lizard species to come out in the spring. With the heat and little higher humidity of our monsoon season, they are very active now. Yesterday I saw a very gravid female sunning on our sidewalk. One of the interesting aspects of this species is that they are all females. There are no males with this species. This is known as parthenogenesis. Since they can produce viable eggs without the help of a male, they have literally perfected the virgin birth. They lay 1-3 nests of 1-4 eggs each summer usually under rocks or logs. These hatch into exact miniature duplicates of the mother. It is believed by biologists that the range of these lizards may be expanding due to overgrazing and desertification of grasslands and riparian areas.