HYBRID CNEMIDOPHORUS (SAURIA, TEIIDAE) IN NINE-MILE VALLEY OF THE PURGATOIRE RIVER, COLORADO

Canonical variate analysis (CVA) of color pattern and scutellation cha racters in lizards collected in Ninemile Valley of the Purgatoire Rive r at Higbee, Otero Co., Colorado graphically depicted two forms of par thenogenetic Cnemidophorus tesselatus (diploid color pattern class C a nd triploid color pattern class B), gonochoristic C. sexlineatus, and hybrid C. tesselatus x C. sexlineatus as four morphologically distinct ive groups. A newly obtained male specimen with a C. tesselatus-like c olor pattern entered as an unknown was classified to the hybrid group in the CVA. It represented the fourth tetraploid hybrid C. tesselatus B(3n) x C. sexlineatus collected in the valley. A female specimen was also classified to the hybrid group by the CVA. A triploid karyotype ( 3n = 69) and color pattern identified this female as a putative C. tes selatus C(2n) x C. sexlineatus hybrid. Whereas male hybrids are presum ably sterile and biological novelties at most, the possibility remains that a female hybrid could be the founder of a new parthenogenetic li neage.