Guadeloupe is composed of two islands whose shape is that of a butterfly and that were joined together in 1806 by the wooden Union Bridge and then the Gabarre Bridge in 1929:
- Situated to the west, Basse-Terre has an area of 848 km2. This is a volcanic mountain whose summit is the Soufriere, located at 1467m altitude. It is covered with a dense rainforest with many rivers and waterfalls.
- Situated to the east, Grande-Terre has an area of 586 km2. The substrate is limestone and consists of a plain bordered by a mangrove forest in the southwest, an irregular succession of hills called “les Grands Fonds” in the center and an arid plateau of rocky coasts in the north.
The species of endemic Anolis of Guadeloupe is called Anolis marmoratus, with reference to the orange marbling on the head of the specimens described by Dumeril and Bibron in 1837. In fact, Anolis marmoratus is a species which has 6 subspecies of Guadeloupe and six others on the islands around (La Désirade, Petite Terre, Marie Galante, Les Saintes, Les ilets Pigeons, Les Ilets Kahouanne, les Ilets Fajous).
Regarding Anolis marmoratus of Guadeloupe, the subspecies are:
Anolis marmoratus marmoratus
Anolis marmoratus marmoratus, which Lazell in 1962, noted as “the most beautiful anole he never saw.” It lives around Capesterre, at the southeast of Basse-terre. Adult male are apple-green, shading to blue on the tail and yellow-green on the limbs. The head, the neck and the orbital area are marbled with orange, the throat fan orange-yellow with yellow scales. Preliminary work we have conducted suggests that it could be classified as a trunk-ground ecomorph.
Anolis marmoratus girafus
Anolis marmoratus girafus that lives along the west coast of Basse-Terre in the driest area of this island. Pale streaks and stipples produce a reticulate pattern on the trunk. The throat fan is yellow with white scales. The head, the neck and the orbital area are grey-brown and the tail is blue-green. However, this phenotype is widely variable depending on geographic location (north-south) of individuals. Our own observations suggest that A. m. girafus can be classified as a trunk-ground ecomorph. Indeed, most individuals (particularly females and juveniles) move on the ground and jump on trunks as soon as we approach.
Anolis marmoratus alliaceus
The montains anole, Anolis marmoratus alliaceus. This is my favorite because it has not been as much affected by urbanization than other subspecies. Its habitat is the rainforest of the island of Basse-Terre and I watched it until 743m above sea level (Morne à Louis). From a morphological view, these are the most gracile. The whole body is green and the orbital area is green-brown. Black dots are distributed along the trunk from the shoulders. The number of points ranging from one to ten or a little more. Sometimes, dots are yellow-black. The throat fan is yellow-orange with yellow-green scales. Like in A. m. girafus, our own observations suggest that A. m. alliaceus can be classified as a trunk-ground ecomorph.
Anolis marmoratus setosus
Anolis marmoratus setosus: neck scales
Anolis marmoratus setosus is the fourth and the last subspecies of Basse-Terre. It lives along the north-west coast of Basse-Terre. Its trunk is green-yellow fading to blue-gray towards the tail on the one hand and the neck and the head on the other. The orbital area is brown and the throat fan is yellow with greenish scales. The main feature of this anole is that its neck scales are conical like spines, giving it a formidable appearance when erect. Our own observations suggest that A. m. setosus can be classified as a trunk-crown ecomorph.
Anolis marmoratus speciosus
Anolis marmoratus speciosus is one of two subspecies of Grande-Terre. It lives on the south-east, which is also the wettest, of the island. As noted previously by Lazell (1962), this form is remarkably constant in color characters. Its trunk is green fading to blue-green towards the neck and the head. The main feature of this anole is that its orbital area is sky-blue. The throat fan is yellow with green-grey scales. An ecomorphological study of a population of A. m. speciosus has shown that this subspecies could be classified as a trunk-crown ecomorph (currently unpublished results).
Anolis marmoratus inornatus
Finally, Anolis marmoratus inornatus lives in the north of Grande-Terre, the driest area of this island. It is pale green and the orbital area is golden brown. The throat fan is yellow with white scales. our own observations suggest that A. m. alliaceus can be classified as a trunk-ground ecomorph.
This apparently easy identification of subspecies based on phenotypic traits is actually complex. There is indeed a great variability of patterns and colors which makes me think now that we must consider this variability as a geographical continuum between a subspecies and another, the intersection of the two populations being composed of hybrids . However, it is very difficult to say whether an individual is hybrid or not in the absence of genetic data. Moreover, it seems now that hybridization is more important (the photo below shows a hybrid marmoratus x alliaceus), due to the facilitation of mixage between sub-species because of urbanization and the opening up of certain geographical areas (east of Basse-Terre in particular). That’s why we have undertaken in collaboration with the National Museum of Natural History, the National Park of Guadeloupe and the Guadeloupe DEAL an inventorying of the entire population of Anolis in order to implement conservation policies and avoid the disappearance of subspecies as was the case for African cichlids.
Anolis marmoratus marmoratus x alliaceus
Regarding the classification of subspecies as ecomorphs, our observations differ from the findings of Knox et al. (2001). Indeed, these authors had classified all A. marmoratus as trunk-crown. In fact, I really think that the position of individuals as a trunk-ground or trunk-crown results from a trade-off between the nature of vegetation and weather conditions.
- United Colors Of Guadeloupe Anoles - September 11, 2013
- Anole predation in Guadeloupe - February 19, 2013
- The Anoles Of Guadeloupe - April 7, 2012
James Lazell
Good summary: it is indeed a chaotic mess. Onwards! Skip
Jérôme Guerlotté
A very good piece of work, indeed !
Jonathan Losos
A. m. setosus is Lazell’s famous “hairy anole”! So-named for the thick, dense conical scales so nicely illustrated here.
Martha Munoz
I’m interested to know how some of these subspecies came to be classified as trunk-ground ecomorphs. Is it a comparison of perch heights and diameters? Did you do a PCA on morphological traits with other Caribbean ecomorphs thrown in. This is very interesting!
Pierre Legreneur
Regarding A. m. speciosus, we studied the distribution of a population of individuals hour by hour for 3 weeks. From a statistical point of view, we characterized the average dispersion of individuals based on their position in the tree. Two parameters were selected: the height and level of ramification of the branches. For each level, we compared statistically the dispersion of the population compared to a random dispersion. This allowed to show that A. m. speciosus could be classified as “trunk-crown.”
Concerning A. m. marmoratus, we characterized their morphometry as we did previously for A. sagrei and A. carolinensis (Legreneur et al., 2012). The results show that the data are similar to those observed in A. sagrei, which led us to hypothesize the classification of “trunk-ground” ecomorph. This hypothesis remains to be validated by a behavioral study as we did in A. m. speciosus.
Regarding the other subspecies, these are assumptions based on observations made during the capture of individuals. However, systematic studies (morphology and behavior) will be conducted in 2013 in collaboration with the National Park of Guadeloupe.
Martha Munoz
I’ll also add that I’m with Skip – Anolis marmoratus marmoratus is the most beautiful anole that I’ve ever seen. Although if I ever get to Gorgona island, it might have some stiff competition from A. gorgonae.
Pierre Legreneur
Yes, they are really beautiful. Here’s an A. m. marmoratus moving on the ground.
Gregor Weidlich
Hey Pierre, great work! Thank you.
If I might ask a little question: Where did you take the picture of the male Anolis m. setosus? This male looks to me like a typical animal from Deshaies. At this specific locality however, you can already observe intermediate characters beween A. m. setosus and A. m. girafus, wich can be recognized by the brownish ground-colour of the head and neck region. The animals with the most cone-shaped like scales, I found at the very northernmost tip of Basse Terre, where the males do not show brown in their headat all. So I would expect this area to be the place where to find the “purest” A. m. setosus.
Regarding all the other pictures, I have nothing to complain. 🙂
Two more questions though:
1) where did you take the picture of A. m. girafus, and at what altitude? I was looking for animals like that – with only white patterning shaped as lines rather than spots – so bad, but could ot find more than two individuals.
2) Do you have any explanation for the presence or absence of blue in the head of A. m. speciosus males? I found the most blue-headed aninmals around Goyave, but sometimes also at different locations on Grande Terre, for example St. Anne. But it seemed to me more as a variety-aspect within the populations and not as a matter of locality.
Thank you for this wondrful post. Keep up the good work on Anoles!
Pierre Legreneur
Dear Gregor,
Concerning the anole of Deshaies, the photo was taken at the Botanical Gardens. But I’ve never seen a hybrid between A. m. setosus and A. m. speciosus at this place. These hybrids, if you can call them that, are found further south, around the Mahault.
Concerning the A. m. girafus, this one was photographed at Pigeon, on the town of Bouillante. The altitude was 37 m. But it is true that souther, they present white lines or spots.
At last, for A. m. speciosus, it seems that the blue color of the head is correlated with the pluviometry (Cf the figure that shows the relationship between the color of the eye of the eyespot and the top of the head).