Guten tag.
I was just wondering about differences between auriceps and baileyi color phases. I thought that what distinguished the two was that baileyi lacked any yellow on the head and was much larger on the whole that auriceps. I noticed in Peter's pics and on Robert Schumacher's site that they seem to call what looks like auriceps, baileyi. Also noticed that they seem to use the two phases describing the same lizard. Are they hybrids of the two color phases? Are there hybridization zones between the two in nature?
On the exportation of collareds to other countries. The U.S. government makes the whole proccess so miserable that it is not worth the time to do so. What takes only a couple weeks in Europa takes months here in the U.S.. It is complete crap and then they wonder why the trade deficit is astromonical. It is a very bad situation trying to export animals legally. All they do by their policies is keep the people who want to do it legally from doing it. They are not stopping the illegal trade at all and 99.9 percent of the bumbling idiots could not tell a collared from a chuckwalla. Sorry for rambling but this is a real pet peeve of most of the legal herpetoculturist here in the United States.
Tom Greb
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Questions and comments on color phases and collared exportation.
Replies (1)
I'm pretty cetain there in an integrade zone where the baileyi and auriceps hybridize. I purchased a pair of hybrids from Casey Lazek a couple of years ago that came from an area in Southern Utah. If you check out Chris McMartin's site on Utah collareds, I believe there are some photos from Casey. The large female he had looked like a typical large female auriceps. The hatchlings I had were pretty cool. The male I had looked really nothing like a normal auriceps...had more blue on the body, and the head shape was a bit pointier. Unfortunately, I didn't really answer your question 
I have gotten some wild caught lizards from south central New Mexico that had very little yellow, however, I've also seen some from the same areas that exhibet nice amounts of yellow on the head and feet. Let me know if you want some info on the area in Utah where those lizards I had came from.
John E.
