22 May, 2024

Since the last observation of the week on May 5, there have been 683 observations added to The Uta Project. There were many notable observations including:

—this pretty female Uta stanburiana stejnegeri by @georgezimmer.

—this nice male-female pair by @zachary488. I've seen males do laps between attending and courting females. I've also see a single male just hang out with a single female for a while.

—this very gravid female by @scubabruin.

—this male whose colors show even more sitting in the shade like this by @daniel0910.

—even the northern side-blotched lizards have started laying eggs, like this female by @alexsowers6.

—there are continued mating attempts being observed, such as this one or this one by @raphaela_fb and @dustdevil.

—this example or this example by @robtea and @cellomaniac of interspecific basking between a Fence Lizard and Side-blotched Lizard. These two species are surprisingly tolerant of one another.

Despite all of these observations, I am choosing as observation of the week this observation of a hatchling Uta by @lagardilla. This is amongst the very first hatchlings of the year and will not be the last. These can be hard to ID, so it's nice to note the even dark-light-dark stripes behind the eye. These stripes can be one of the only ways to tell these since their blotch often doesn't show until they sexually mature at age 10 months. Right now, the southern latitude/low elevation females are probably working on their third clutches, mid-latitudes/elevations on their 2nd clutches, and the northern latitude/higher elevation populations working on their 1st clutches still. The breeding season will usually continue into July, rain permitting. However, the monsoons can induce late-season clutches in some locations.

As always, thank you to everyone who has observed a Side-blotched Lizards in the past few weeks. Your contributions are greatly appreciated.
—Pete Zani

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Posted on May 22, 2024 03:28 PM by petezani