Table 1: Description of the
species reported to have lighter-colored populations inside than outside the
gypsum dune field at White Sands National Monument.
|
Species |
Description
of coloration |
Sources |
|
Reptiles |
|
|
|
Bleached earless lizard (Holbrookia maculata ruthveni)1 |
"The dorsal color...is a light,
grayish cream, more yellowish on the sides.... Under the microscope no
pigment granules are discernible except on the sides of the belly, where on
each side two small, black spots are formed by a concentration of dark
pigment granules" (p. 343, Smith, 1943). |
Bundy,
1955; Dixon, 1967; Lewis, 1949; Smith, 1943 |
|
Cowles prairie lizard (Sceloporus undulatus cowlesi)2 |
"On the middorsal surface of the
body there is a broad light blue stripe" from the head to the base of
the tail. "This wide light blue
stripe is bordered on either side by complete light tan...stripes"
alternating with white stripes. The
top of the tail is bluish towards the base and grades into pale gray towards
the tip. The underside of the tail
"is pure white." (p. 127, Lowe and Norris, 1956) |
Dixon,
1967; Lowe and Norris, 1956 |
|
Little striped Whiptail (Cnemidophorus inornatus) |
Color "is strikingly different
from typical normal colored samples from southern New Mexico." In Las Cruces, the ground color is
"dark brown to chocolate brown with the 7 white lines greatly
contrasting against the dark ground color." (p. 17). In dunes populations, "the ground
color is pale yellowish-gray to pale bluish-gray with the 6 to 7 light
stripes present but somewhat obscure.
The limbs are pale blue without a suffusion of grayish bars on the
dorsal surfaces in most specimens.
The head is light brown to gray-blue in females, bright sky-blue to
blue in males" (pp. 16-17, Lowe and Norris, 1956). |
Dixon,
1967 |
|
Amphibians |
|
|
|
Spadefoot toad (Scaphiopus couchii) |
"completely white except for
black eyes and black marks on the under-side of the hind feet." (p. 232) |
Stroud,
1949 |
|
Mammals |
|
|
|
Apache pocket mouse (Perognathus flavescens apachii)1,
3 |
Fur color ranges "from white almost
to the yellow color normally found in apache pocket mice. The majority are nearly white and match
the color of the background very well." (p. 27, Benson, 1933) |
Benson,
1933 |
|
White sands wood rat (Neotoma micropus leucophaea)1, 4 |
"Upper parts pale ashy gray or
near pale smoke gray, purest on cheeks, shoulders, and sides, the top of head
and back thinly mixed with black producing a finely lined effect; under parts
white." (p. 472, Goldman, 1933 |
Goldman,
1933 |
|
Spotted ground squirrel (Spermophilus spilosoma) |
"somewhat paler than the
Alamogordo specimens." (p. 220, Blair, 1941). |
Blair,
1941 |
|
Insects |
|
|
|
Camel cricket (Ammobaenites phrixocnemoides arenicolus)1 |
"Wholly colorless,...a
translucent white..., the eyes are black and the spurs and spines are reddish
but unpigmented." (p. 242). |
Stroud,
1950 |
|
Camel cricket (Daihinoides hastiferum larvale)1 |
"Entirely white and the light
color must be due to a lack of any pigment as one can see through the
epidermis and observe internal organs" (Bugbee, 1942). |
Bugbee,
1942, Stroud, 1950, Stroud and Strohecker, 1949 |
|
Locustid (Cibolacris parviceps arida) |
"Reddish brown specimens were
taken on red soil near La Luz, but those from the White Sands dunes area were
very light in color" (p. 676). |
Stroud,
1950 |
|
Tiger beetle (Cicindela praetextata) |
Some beetles "were very near the
typical form but others have very broad white margins covering more than half
the elytra" (p. 676). |
Stroud,
1950 |
|
Arachnids |
|
|
|
Lycosid spider |
"brown in basic color but its abdomen
usually appeared as if covered with hoar-frost. This white color was easily rubbed off when individual
specimens were handled." |
Bugbee,
1942 |
|
Scorpion (Vejovis boreus) |
"light-colored" |
Bugbee,
1942 |
|
Solpugid (Eremobates affinis) |
"white in color" |
Bugbee,
1942 |
1 Endemic subspecies (i.e., subspecies is found only in the
White Sands dunefield).
2 A different subspecies (S.
u. tristichus) is dark at the Valley of Fires (Lewis, 1949).
3 A related species (P.
intermedius ater) is dark at the Valley of Fires (Dice, 1929).
4 A related species (N.
albigula melas) is dark at the Valley of Fires (Dice, 1929).
Benson SB, 1933.
Concealing coloration among some desert rodents of the southwestern United
States. Univ. Calif. Pub. Zool. 40:1-70.
Blair WF, 1941.
Annotated list of mammals of the Tularosa Basin, New Mexico. Am. Midl. Nat.
26:218-229.
Bugbee RE, 1942.
Notes on animal occurrence and activity in the White Sands National Monument,
New Mexico. Trans. Kans. Acad. Sci. 45:315-321.
Bundy RE, 1955. Color
Variation in Two Species of Lizards (Phrynosoma
modestum and Holbrookia maculata
subspecies) (Ph.D.): University of Wisconsin.
Dice LR, 1929.
Description of two new pocket mice and a new woodrat from New Mexico. Occas.
Papers Mus. Zool., U. Mich. 203:1-4.
Dixon JR, 1967.
Aspects of the biology of the lizards of the White Sands, New Mexico. Contrib.
Sci 129:1-22.
Goldman EA, 1933. New
mammals from Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. J. Wash. Acad. Sci. 23:463-473.
Lewis TH, 1949. Dark
coloration in the reptiles of the Tularosa malpais, New Mexico. Copeia
3:181-184.
Lowe CH, Norris KS,
1956. A subspecies of the lizard Sceloporus
undulatus from the White Sands of New Mexico. Herpetologica 12:125-127.
Smith HM, 1943. The
White Sands earless lizard. Zool. Ser. Field Mus. Nat. Hist. 24:339-344.
Stroud CP, 1949. A
white spade-foot toad from the New Mexico White Sands. Copeia 1949:232.
Stroud CP, 1950. A
survey of the insects of White Sands National Monument, Tularosa Basin, New
Mexico. Am. Midl. Nat. 44:659-677.
Stroud CP, Strohecker
HF, 1949. Notes on White Sands Gryllacrididae (Orthoptera). Proc. Ent. Soc.
Wash. 51:125-126.