In the southwestern deserts of the United States and northern Mexico, lives a very peculiar
species of reptile.
The New Mexico Whiptail (Aspidoscelis neomexicanus) is a natural hybrid of two different
species of lizards, the Little Striped Whiptail (Aspidoscelis inornatus) and the Western
Whiptail (Aspidoscelis tigris).
It’s a small lizard, it’s size ranges from 16.5 to 23 cm on average, and has a brown or black
color with seven yellow stripes. There are little spots that occur between the stripes, and
they have a white underside.
They live in deserts and grasslands, and have a diet that consists of insects. They live a
solitary life of running, as they are very fast and energetic like most lizards. During the winter,
these lizards, like most other reptiles go in hibernation in their shelters. They like to burrow
and dig in the soil and spend most of their days running and trying to find insects to devour.
They do not have any major threats on their habitat right now, so this species is classified as
Least Concern, since their numbers are stable.
At first glance, this critter just looks like a normal lizard that lives in the desert, but it has a
pretty special property that sets it apart from a lot of the lizard species that we know.
First of all, unlike all whiptail species, the Western Whiptail that this species was hybridized
from had male and female counterparts, the New Mexico Whiptail, similar to other whiptails
is a species entirely compromised of females.
This means that this lizard can only be reproduced again by hybridizing those two different
species of lizards again, doesn’t it? Well, not really.
This is because the New Mexico Whiptail can reproduce through parthenogenesis, which is
an asexual reproduction method where the egg cell can fertilize and develop on its own to be
a zygote, without a necessary sperm cell for fertilization. Though this method of
reproduction is not specific to this organism, the New Mexico Whiptail makes up with a very
interesting way of doing this.
Since all of these lizards are female, there are no males to fertilize the eggs by producing
sperm. Due to the properties and genetics of this hybrids, healthy males can not form.
Since they reproduce with parthenogenesis, they should be able to fertilize the eggs
themselves, as other species with this ability can do.
However, for the egg to be fertilized, two female lizards need to “mate”.
Most other whiptails engage in parthenogenesis too, but they do not need to engage in this
mating ritual.
This can’t be called truly mating in the zoologic term, because there is no actual sperm and
egg cell, it’s just a dance that lets the female fertilize the egg.
This isn’t similar to other animals that do mating for recreational purposes either, because
this is necessary for eggs and offsprings of this animal to form.
A theory of what this behavior does is that the “mating” stimulates ovulation, because
without this little ritual of these lizards, they can’t lay eggs.
They lay up to 4 eggs, and these eggs hatch in approximately 8 weeks.
Because the species are compromised of all females and their interesting way of
reproduction, these critters have been nicknamed as “lesbian lizards”.
Homosexual behavior like this can be seen in various animals, whether in the way of
parenting or for sexual reasons.
Probably the most widely known of these are various species of the Penguin, where two
males of this bird were observed to mate and try parenting orphaned or stolen children.
However, the New Mexico Whiptail is really unique as it is a species where homosexual
mating is required for them to reproduce and have offspring.
This lizard and multiple other animals have been a subject of many artistic expressions and
religious arguments, and have been used by people to try disproving the religious view that
God doesn’t condone and disallows homosexu