• The dunes in soft light

    White Sands

    National Monument New Mexico

  • Closures and Missile Tests

    Upcoming Missile Tests: Friday-Saturday, April 27-28 -- Missile test scheduled on both mornings. Highway 70 will be blocked at Red & Yellow checkpoints. No backcountry camping on Thursday and Friday, April 26 & 27. More »

  • High Winds

    We are in our windy season, so please be aware of possible high winds.

  • Backcountry Camping

    There will be no backcountry camping available the night of Saturday, April 7, 2012.

Table 2

Table 2:  Probable mechanisms of color change for light-colored species at White Sands National Monument, and the basis on which those mechanisms were determined. 


 

Mechanism of color change

Species

Basis for conclusion

Source

Color fixed in individuals

Bleached earless lizard (Holbrookia maculata ruthveni )

Individuals held in lab with different-colored substrates do not change color.

Bundy, 1955;Lowe and Norris, 1956

 

Cowles prairie lizard (Sceloporus undulatus cowlesi)

Individuals held in lab with different-colored substrates do not change color.

Lowe and Norris, 1956

 

Little striped Whiptail (Cnemidophorus inornatus)

Individuals held in lab with different-colored substrates do not change color.

Lowe and Norris, 1956

 

Apache pocket mouse (Perognathus flavescens apachii)

Dark Individuals of P. intermedius ater from Valley of Fires held in lab with different-colored substrates do not change color.

Benson, 1933

 

Camel cricket (Ammobaenites phrixocnemoides arenicolus)

Assertion by author.

Stroud, 1950

 

Camel cricket (Daihinoides hastiferum larvale)

Assertion by author.

Stroud, 1950

Color changes rapidly to match substrate

Spadefoot toad (Scaphiopus couchii)

Individuals in lab do change color.

Stroud, 1949

Color changes at molt to match substrate

Locustid (Cibolacris parviceps arida)

Assertion by author.

Stroud, 1950

Color derived from environment

Lycosid spider

White color rubs off easily to reveal brown underneath; color may still be internally derived.

Bugbee, 1942

 


Benson SB, 1933. Concealing coloration among some desert rodents of the southwestern United States. Univ. Calif. Pub. Zool. 40:1-70.

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.

Lowe CH, Norris KS, 1956. A subspecies of the lizard Sceloporus undulatus from the White Sands of New Mexico. Herpetologica 12:125-127.

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.

 

Did You Know?

Aerial photo of parabolic dunes.

Not all sand dunes are alike. Dunes may take many forms, depending on the amount of sand available, the strength and direction of prevailing winds, and the type of vegetation in the area. Four types of dunes can be found in the white sands dunefield.