PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



issued I^AlVhL sJ»?M« hu ih 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Vol.108 Washington : 1958 No. 3406 



THE STATUS OF THE LIZARD CNEMIDOPHORUS PERPLEXUS 

 BAIRD AND GIRARD (TEIIDAE) 



By T. Paul Maslin,' Richard G. BEIDLEMA^,^ 

 and Charles H. Lowe, Jr.^ 



Several years ago Burger (1950), in a paper concerned with the 

 sj-stematics of Cnemidojyhorus , stripped the name Cnemidophorus 

 perplexus of all specimens previously associated with it except the 

 type. This action followed a period of some 50 years of taxonomic 

 confusion and, as Burger himself pointed out, was a temporary measure 

 until more material was available with definite locality data. Burger, 

 with qualifications, followed Burt (1931) in his designation of the type 

 and tAi)e locality. Burt in turn apparently based his designation of 

 the type on indirect statements made by Cope in 1893 and again in 

 1900 and possibly from examinations of the catalog entries of the 

 U. S. National Museum (USNM). But he based his designation of 

 the type locality on the original description of Baird and Girard in 

 1852. His selection of the type locality has been accepted by most 

 workers since then, but his action was unjustified. He designated one 

 specimen as the lectotype of perplexus, and the habitat of different 

 specimens as the type localit3\ This discrepancy and the recent 

 description of two new striped species from the Southwest provided 



1 University of Colorado Museum, Boulder, Colo. 

 ' Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colo. 

 ' University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz. 



331 



