A previously unreported locality record for the Gila monster ( Heloderma suspectum )

Jeff Lovich; Gordon Haxel

doi:10.3160/1006.1

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A previously unreported locality record for the Gila monster ( Heloderma suspectum )

Jeff Lovich·Gordon Haxel

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Abstract

Although the Gila Monster (Heloderma suspectum) is widely distributed throughout the Sonoran and portions of the Mojave Deserts of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, details of its distribution in California are imperfectly known, due to the apparent rarity of the species in that state. In their review of Gila Monster records for California, Lovich and Beaman (2007) documented only 26 credible sightings during a period of 153 years. In May 2009 another sighting in California was documented by Ruppert (2010a, b) who photographed a specimen in the Providence Mountains, an area known for previous Gila Monster sightings (Lovich and Beaman 2007). In this paper we report the 28th credible record of a Gila Monster in California.

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Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences Article

Source-reported bounding extent: 32.53° to 42° latitude; -124.41° to -114.13° longitude. This indicates report coverage, not an exact sampling location. View area on OpenStreetMap.

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Jeff Lovich, Gordon Haxel. 2011. A previously unreported locality record for the Gila monster ( Heloderma suspectum ). https://doi.org/10.3160/1006.1

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