Table 2: Probable mechanisms of color change for light-colored species at White Sands National Park, 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.