Unisexual lizard

49 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm.Includes bibliographical references (p. 46-49)."Cnemidophorus tesselatus is a species of lizard in which males are virtually absent. Hence, reproduction presumably is parthenogenetic. Variation of the species as a whole is similar to that of bisexual forms, but samples of local populations of tesselatus show greatly restricted variation in color pattern and scutellation in comparison to similar samples of the bisexual form C. tigris. Presumably this restriction results from the great reduction in recombination that is a consequence of unisexual reproduction. Five allopatric classes of color pattern are recognized in tesselatus. Populations of a sixth class occur in two widely separated areas, in each of which they are sympatric with another class. Differences in scutellation correlate with differences in color pattern of sympatric populations, indicating that two genetically distinct clonal lines coexist. The most widespread color-pattern class is relatively uniform in scutellation over a wide geographic area, whereas populations with more restricted geographic distributions tend to differ, in some cases markedly, from locality to locality. Differences in scutellation and color pattern among populations of tesselatus are similar to those that distinguish subspecies in bisexual species of Cnemidophorus. However, complications introduced by sympatric clones and discordant variation render the recognition of subspecies impractical in the unisexual species. Retention of all the populations within one species is recommended as best exemplifying their relationships, even though gene exchange between parthenogenetic populations manifestly is impossible"--P. 41