[ **up: [[Lizards]]** ] --- # Side-blotched lizard / *Uta* (Genus) ## Multiple ‘sexes’ (Phenotypes) [[2025-0313. The side-blotched lizard has two female 'sexes' and three male 'sexes', which are differently coloured and exhibit different behaviours.|The side-blotched lizard has two female "sexes" and three male "sexes", which are differently coloured and exhibit different behaviours.]][^1] [[2025-0313. The side-blotched lizard has two female 'sexes' and three male 'sexes', which are differently coloured and exhibit different behaviours.|’The females are divided into “orange” and “yellow”, with the orange laying many small eggs and being very territorial, and the yellow laying fewer, larger, eggs and are more tolerant of neighbors.’]][^2] [[2025-0313. The side-blotched lizard has two female 'sexes' and three male 'sexes', which are differently coloured and exhibit different behaviours.|’The males are divided into “orange”, “yellow”, and “blue”. Oranges are larger and claim a large territory and many females and are very territorial. Yellows claim no territory or females but sneak into an orange’s territory to mate with his females when he is in another part of his (too large to completely guard) territory. Blues claim a small territory and a single female, which he can defend from a sneaking yellow, but cannot prevent a larger orange from taking his female if it makes the attempt.’]][^3] [^1]: Michael Richardson \[pseud.], ‘Given any kind of living organism what logical reasons could result in a species having more than three genders?’, *Worldbuilding* (Stack Exchange), 26 August 2016, https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/a/53077. Licence: [CC BY-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) [^2]: Michael Richardson \[pseud.], ‘Given any kind of living organism what logical reasons could result in a species having more than three genders?’, *Worldbuilding* (Stack Exchange), 26 August 2016, https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/a/53077. Licence: [CC BY-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) [^3]: Michael Richardson \[pseud.], ‘Given any kind of living organism what logical reasons could result in a species having more than three genders?’, *Worldbuilding* (Stack Exchange), 26 August 2016, https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/a/53077. Licence: [CC BY-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)