NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Little Striped Whiptail
Aspidoscelis inornatus (Baird, 1859)
Source-backed taxonomic record
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
The little striped whiptail (Aspidoscelis inornatus) is a species of lizard found in the southwestern United States (in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas) and in northern Mexico (in Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí, and Nuevo León). A significant amount of research was done on the species during the mid-1990s, with several new subspecies being added, many of which some sources consider to be distinct enough to warrant full species status, and the research is ongoing. It is called little to distinguish it from many other species known as striped whiptails and to indicate that it is the smallest of those species.
Wikipedia contributors, Little striped whiptail; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T10:32:16.330923+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Aspidoscelis inornatus (Baird, 1859)
- Name authority
- (Baird, 1859)
- Common name
- Little Striped Whiptail
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Reptilia
- Order
- Squamata
- Family
- Teiidae
- Genus
- Aspidoscelis
- Extinction status
- Not supplied by this source
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classReptilia Laurenti, 1768
- orderSquamata Oppel, 1811
- suborderAutarchoglossa
- familyTeiidae
- genusAspidoscelis
- speciesAspidoscelis inornatus (Baird, 1859)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Aspidoscelis. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Carmen Island WhiptailAspidoscelis carmenensis (Maslin & Secoy, 1986) | TeiidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Gray Checkered WhiptailAspidoscelis dixoni (Scudday, 1973) | TeiidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Aspidoscelis preopatae | TeiidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Yucatan WhiptailAspidoscelis angusticeps (Cope, 1878) | TeiidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Canyon Spotted WhiptailAspidoscelis burti (Taylor, 1938) | TeiidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Cerralvo Island WhiptailAspidoscelis ceralbensis (Van Denburgh & Slevin, 1921) | TeiidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Isla San José WhiptailAspidoscelis danheimae (Burt, 1929) | TeiidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Blackbelly RacerunnerAspidoscelis deppii (Wiegmann, 1834) | TeiidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Chihuahuan Spotted WhiptailAspidoscelis exsanguis (Lowe, 1956) | TeiidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Mexican RacerunnerAspidoscelis guttatus (Wiegmann, 1834) | TeiidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Aspidoscelis hyperythrus (Cope, 1863) | TeiidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Baja California WhiptailAspidoscelis labialis (Stejneger, 1890) | TeiidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Cnemidophorus inornatus chihuahuae Wright & Lowe, 1993 Wright & Lowe, 1993 | synonym |
| Cnemidophorus inornatus cienegae Wright & Lowe, 1993 Wright & Lowe, 1993 | synonym |
| Cnemidophorus inornatus juniperus Wright & Lowe, 1993 Wright & Lowe, 1993 | synonym |
| Cnemidophorus inornatus Baird, 1858 Baird, 1858 | synonym |
| Cnemidophorus inornatus Baird, 1859 Baird, 1859 | synonym |
| Cnemidophorus inornatus paululus Williams, 1968 Williams, 1968 | synonym |
| Cnemidophorus inornatus paululus Wright & Lowe, 1993 Wright & Lowe, 1993 | synonym |
| Cnemidophorus perplexus Van Denburgh, 1922 Van Denburgh, 1922 | ambiguous synonym |
| Cnemidophorus inornatus llanuras Wright & Lowe, 1993 Wright & Lowe, 1993 | synonym |
| Cnemidophorus octolineatus Baird, 1859 Baird, 1859 | ambiguous synonym |
| Cnemidophorus gularis velox Springer, 1928 Springer, 1928 | ambiguous synonym |
Documented distribution
Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Aspidoscelis&species=inornatus Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:5W6SC. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.