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

January 1, 2011

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.

Publication Year 2011
Title A previously unreported locality record for the Gila monster (Heloderma suspectum)
DOI 10.3160/1006.1
Authors Jeff Lovich, Gordon Haxel
Publication Type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Series Title Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences
Index ID 70042114
Record Source USGS Publications Warehouse
USGS Organization Southwest Biological Science Center