Teiids of the United States
Teiids are long slender lizards with long whilike tails and well developed legs. Movements are characteristically rapid and jerky. They range from 4" to 48" in length. Typically they have small round, non-overlapping scales on the back and large rectangular scales on the belly. There are no bony plates (osteoderms) in the skin. The large regular head shields are fused to the skull.
Whiptails ar diurnal, terrestrial carnivores. Small species feed on incests and other invertebrates, while larger species consume small mammals, birds, bird eggs, and other reptiles. Prey is located both by sight and by small or taste, by means of a long protusible deeply forked tongue.
All teiids are egg layers. In most species, females produce fertile eggs only after breeding with males of the same species. However, tehre are true unisexual species among Cnemidophorus. All individulas are females, so there is no mating. A mature female lays fertile, but unfertilized, eggs taht hatch into more females
There 17 species of Teiids in the U.S.
Inroduced into Miami, Florida and surrounding district. Native to South America.
Found from southern Arizona and extreme southwestern New Mexico south to the Mexican coast.
Found in Presidio County, Texas. Hidalgo County, New Mexico.
Found from southeastern Arizona and central New Mexico south into western Texas and Mexico.
Found from central and southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico.
Found from southeastern New Mexico to southern Oklahoma south through texas into Mexico.
Found from southwestern California into Baja California and the offshore islands.
Found from New Mexico, extreme southeastern Arizona, western Texas south into Mexico.
Found in Webb County, Texas.
Found from the Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico and extreme western Texas into Mexico.
Found from the Big Bend Region of Texas south into Mexico.
Found from Delaware south through Florida, west to Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, southeastern Wyoming, and South Dakota.
Found from southeastern Arizona, extreme southwestern New Mexico and adjacent Mexico.
Found from southern Colorado and New Mexico, western Texas into adjacent Mexico.
Found from Baja California and California to eastern Oregon and southern Idaho, south into western Texas and Mexico.
Found from central Arizona to extreme western Texas and south into adjacent Mexico.
Found from western Colorado south to central New Mexico, west to central Arizona, north through southeastern Utah.
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