While doing some local herping for fun this weekend with a couple of friends visiting from out of town (Janson Jones of previous AA fame; 1,2,3,4,5), we happened upon this Cuban knight anole (Anolis equestris) with a fairly conspicuous hole in its dewlap. Despite this, the lizard appeared in prime condition. Other reports of strange dewlaps have been documented on AA before, such as these grey-dewlapped Puerto Rican crested anoles (A. cristatellus) and American green anoles (A. carolinensis), but has anyone ever seen any individuals with tissue missing from the core region of the dewlap (as opposed to injuries sustained on the peripheries, such as this Cuban brown anole (A. sagrei), which aren’t generally that uncommon)?
Here’s one example, from an AA post from four years ago.
- Do Bigger Anoles Have More Diverse Parasites? Not in Brazilian Anolis fuscoauratus - May 28, 2020
- What Role Do Chemicals Play in Anole Social Interactions? - May 27, 2020
- Hurricane-blown Anoles are a NY Times Cartoon! - May 20, 2020
A.
I don’t know if you’ll see this comment, as the post is a year old, but I just saw a Carolina anole with a neat hole right in the middle of its dewlap — that’s how I came across the post, in an attempt to search for answers once I saw that it wasn’t just how Carolina anoles’ dewlaps were supposed to look.