Description: The average snout to vent length is approximately 3.5 inches. A moderately large slim bodied lizard with a long slender tail, a pointed snout, large symmetrical head plates, and a long tail tapering to a thin point about twice the size of the body.

This information is based on previous descriptions of two species which were merged into one - Aspidoscelis flagellicauda and Aspidoscelis sonorae. The ground color is blackish, brown, or reddish. There are 6 distinct light-colored longitudinal stripes on the back and sides. Light spots are present in the dark fields between the stripes. Spots that are lighter in color than the light stripes may also extend onto the stripes. Older individuals tend to be more heavily spotted. The underside is cream colored and not marked. Juveniles are similar to adults but have few spots and the contrast between the light stripes and the dark fields is greater.

Habitat: Native Habitat: Found in oak and pine and pinyon/juniper evergreen woodlands, interior chaparral, sometimes in semi-desert grasslands, desert scrub, and seems to prefer riparian corridors. In California, found in landscaping and on parking lot asphalt. Described by Winkleman and Backlin as "...strongly acclimated to the urbanized environment and readily using spaces underneath concrete slabs for shelter."

Range: Ranges across central and southeast Arizona into New Mexico with an isolated poulation in the Chiricahua and Catalina Mountains of Arizona, and south into the northern parts of the states of Chihuahua and Sonora in Mexico. These whiptails have been found in California in Orange County in Irvine, Lake Forest, Aliso Viejo, Laguna Beach, and Laguna Woods, and they appear to be spreading quickly.

Found in these States: AZ | CA | NM

Diet: Eats a variety of insects (termites, beetles, grasshoppers) arthropods, and spiders. A very active forager, often continually moving along the ground, poking its snout into leaf litter and bushes, and sometimes using the feet to dig into and scratch leaf litter when searching for food.

Reproduction: All members of this species are females that do not need males to fertilize their eggs. They reproduce with unfertilized eggs. The eggs hatch into genetically identical female lizards. A. sonorae lays 2 or 3 clutches of 1 to 7 eggs, with an average of 4, from June through August which hatch about 2 months later.

Status: Listed as Least Concern in view of its wide distribution, presumed large population, and because it is unlikely to be declining fast enough to qualify for listing in a more threatened category.

Taxonomy: Taylor et al (2018) relegated A. flagellicaudus (Lowe and Wright 1964) to the synonymy of A. sonorae. Their study found that the formal descriptions of Aspidoscelis flagellicaudus and Aspidoscilis sonorae were extremely brief and confirmation that they were two legitimate natural species is lacking. They found that color pattern, preanal scale arrangements and other traditional methods for differentiating the two species are not effective and concluded that the two species are different pattern classes of one species, Aspidoscelis sonorae.