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Common Checkered Whiptail vs. Chihuahuan Spotted Whiptail

Both are big all-female whiptails of the canyons and grassland of New Mexico and western Texas (records share 27 one-degree squares). A: Pale stripes cut and joined by black bars and squares: a checkerboard in the Common Checkered Whiptail; pale spots scattered over the dark fields AND the stripes; no black bars in the Chihuahuan Spotted Whiptail. B: Irregular, interrupted or joined to bars in the Common Checkered Whiptail; six faint, fairly straight stripes in the Chihuahuan Spotted Whiptail. The Chihuahuan Spotted Whiptail's spots turn bright yellow on the hind legs and lower back.

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Common Checkered Whiptail

Aspidoscelis tesselatus

Chihuahuan Spotted Whiptail

Aspidoscelis exsanguis

Photographs via iNaturalist under Creative Commons licences; the photographers are credited on the sheet.

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