This is the Official List as recognized by:

This new list of standard English and scientific names for North American amphibians and reptiles includes two important innovations:

1. Guidelines for the formation of standard English names.

2. Comments and relevant literature to the committee's decisions about newly proposed and controversial scientific names.

This edition of the list also brings back the committee judgment for both standard English names and recognized scientific names, adding more stability to these names.

Three examples from the book are included below. Note: The book does not contain photographs of the species. These are added to the web page only.

See account by Price and Sullivan (1988. Cat. Am. Amph. Rept. 415). See comment under Bufo californicus. Formerly included B. californicus and B. mexicanus (extralimital) as subspecies, which were elevated by Gergus (1998, Herpetologica 54: 317-325).

The status of the three subspecies in the U.S. (and additional extralimital taxa) is unclear. Spiteri (1988, Southwest. Herpetol. Soc. Spec. Pub. 4: 113-130) reevaluated subspecies within Lichanura trivirgata using morphological data, resulting in an arrangement of subspecies different from that listed below. Spiteri's taxonomic arrangement has largely been ignored except in pet hobbyist literature and is not followed here. Reviewed by Yingling (1982, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept. 294).

L. t. gracia Klauber, 1931 - Desert Rosy Boa
L. t. roseofusca Cope, 1868 - Coastal Rosy Boa
L. t. trivirgata Cope, 1861 - Mexican Rosy Boa

Maslin and Secoy (1986, Contrib. Zool. Univ. Colorado Mus. 1: 1-60) treated the name Cnemidophorus (sackii) innotatus as a synonym of C. velox, but Wright (1993, Pp. 27-81 in Biology of Whiptail Lizards [Genus Cnemidophorus], J. W. Wright and L. J. Vitt [eds.], Oklahoma Mus. Nat. Hist.) applied the name C. velox to populations of triploid parthenogens and treated C. innotatus as the name of a separate diploid species. Cuellar (1977, Evolution 31: 24-31) found histoincompatibility (rejection of skin grafts) between C. velox-like lizards from Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah, which Cuellar and Wright (1992, Comp. Rend. Soc. Biogeogr. 68: 157-160) interpreted as potential evidence for different ploidy levels. The type locality of C. velox is in Arizona, while that of C. innotatus is in Utah, and lizards from New Mexico are known to be triploid (Neaves, 1969, J. Exper. Zool. 171: 175-184; Dessauer and Cole, 1989 Pp. 49-71 in Evolution and ecology of unisexual vertebrates, R. M. Dawley and J. P. Bogert [eds.], New York State Museum). If lizards from the type locality of C. innotatus turn out to be diploid, it would be reasonable to recognize a separate diploid species and apply the name C. innotatus (Plateau spotted whiptail) to it.

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