Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Been reading this formum for awhile now and just decided to register.

I live in N. California and about 2 years or so I was in the foothills taking my nieces and nephews for a hike by their house.

They found a horned lizard and I took it home as it was in an area being bulldozed to make way for suburban sprawl. I took it too my local reptile guy (I have Chameleons, 1 Argentine Boa, 1 Mexican Milksnake and have cared for desert horned lizards and various reptiles in the past as my grandmother lived in the Mojave desert) My guy said it was a Coronatum and was protected by State laws (he said he had permits in the past and that is why he was able to ID) This is when I found your forum and also ID it as a Coronatum from Phrynosoma.com - great site. With that said I did return it to the general area where I found it - but a mile or so away from development.

The reason for my post is I was just wondering the difference between a Coronatum & Blainsvillei. I did take a picture of it while in my care but do not know where it is now or I would post. Now that the weather is finally stable here, I was going to head in the same area this weekend and see if I could find anymore. I will take my Digi camera and post any pics up if I am lucky enough to see any HL this weekend.

Yesterday on my bike ride home I had a flat and while repairing noticed a baby Northern Pacific rattlesnake curled up 2 feet away from my foot. Wish I had my camera then - sprinked with water and let him be.

Thanks guys.

others could give you better information on the morphology, since, as I said before, they really aren't my specialty being that I am in Texas. to me Coronatum is Coronatum, and that's about as far as I've bothered so far.
but basically, it may suffice to tell you that Blainvillei is one of several subspecies of Coronatum. it is commonly called the San Diego Horned Lizard obviously due to the goegraphic range it is found in.

Mick
-----
"A man that should call every thing by it's right name, would hardly pass the streets without being knocked down as a common enemy."

The Complete Works of Goerge Savile, First Marquess of Halifax, 1912.

There are two subspecies of Phrynosoma coronatum identified in California. The San Diego Coast Horned Lizard, the southern subspecies, is identified as Phrynosoma coronatum blainvelli and is found in San Diego, Riverside, Orange, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties. The California Coast Horned Lizard, the northern subspecies, is identified as Phrynosoma coronatum frontale and is found along the coastal, west of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, as far north as Sacramento.

There are distinct morphological differences that identify the two as seperate. Whether the differences are geographic variation is debated.

Note: when discussing species/subspecies, the naming is not capitalized, only the genus name is capitalized. Picky of me is it not.

Lester G. MilroyIII
Conservation Biologist

To make things even more difficult changes are underway to group blainvillei with schmidti and frontale. So what is currently frontale will also be blainvillei. The other subspecies would be defined as distinct species with the addition of a new species. So one species now becomes four. As Mick pointed out in an earlier post people are already recognizing this new classification.

Nope not picky at all Lester. LOL.