Participating in the Organization for Tropical Studies’ course in tropical biology recently took me to amazing Las Alturas, a satellite field station of the Las Cruces Biological Station in southern Costa Rica. The site is adjacent to the La Amistad Biosphere Reserve, close to the border with Panama, and hiking around Las Alturas takes one into some beautiful primary forest. Returning from a long hike, course-mate Amy Miller and I happened upon this anole:
Anole at Las Alturas
A quick scan through Savage’s (2002) tome on Costa Rican herps yielded nothing. My mistake was, of course, to focus on dewlap colour and pattern. Turns out this is Anolis woodi (thanks to Mason Ryan and Steve Poe for the ID!), a species known for its blue eyes and changeable dewlap. Savage (2002) shows two photographs of the same male–in one, his dewlap is completely orange and in the next, completely brown. That said, our anole’s dewlap looked pretty different from the one pictured in Savage (2002)–note the large central white patch.
So my question for you readers is this: have you seen similar dewlap variants of A. woodi? Any other funky variants? How many of you have observed the famed colour-changing?
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Yoel Stuart
That’s interesting! For most anoles, the dewlap scales change color but the dewlap skin does not. Is it the skin that changes color here? What other anoles can do this? I think Anolis garmani from Jamaica can do it, if my memory serves.
Pat Shipman
Pardon my ignorance, but how can one tell if it is the skin or the scales changing color?
Brian Folt
Interesting observation on the woodi, for sure. Observant hikers also noted Norops polylepis and Norops pachypus. One student with super excellent skills even unearthed a Bolitoglossa minutula. I wish I could have visited Las Alturas before the amphibians crashed..
Ambika Kamath
Glad you managed to ID the salamander Brian!