Photo by Andreas Kay, Flickr
Hey all!
Here’s a bit of lizard joy for you today!
HUGE shoutout and credit to The Amphibians and Reptiles of Mindo by Arteaga et al. because I can’t find any natural history info about this anole anywhere but in this book. If you can get it, you should! Because of current events they can’t do their normal herping tours (Tropical Herping) and could use the support. Their photography is amazing and you can get calendars, posters and pocket field guides!
NOW ON TO THE ANOLE.
Photo by Andreas Kay, iNaturalist
Anolis gracilipes, the Charm Anole, certainly is a charming little anole.
It’s been classified as a twig ecomorph, a group of small anoles whose bodies are adapted for narrow surfaces like, you guessed it, twigs. This little lizard can get up to 172-181 mm for males and 169-191 mm for females.
This anole has a brown colouring on its back, with triangular markings and green on its throat, down to its chest.
Photo by Jorge Britos, iNaturalist
Charm anoles can be found in Ecuador and Colombia, where they are common, but may depend on (unfortunately declining) forest canopies.
Photo by Edison Ocaña
Charm anoles are ambush predators and sometimes can be found at ground level.
...And also like every other anole. Every week. #DidYouAnole?
- #DidYouAnole – Anolis allogus - December 24, 2021
- #DidYouAnole – Anolis gundlachi - November 12, 2021
- #DidYouAnole – Anolis phyllorhinus - November 5, 2021
John Sullivan
I am loving all of these #DidYouAnole posts — thanks Chelsea!
Chelsea Connor
No problem!
Kevin de Queiroz
I doubt that this is a twig species; it looks more like a grass-bush species. If the common (English) name were up to me, I would call them Slender-footed Anoles.
Chelsea Connor
While it also does not look like a twig species to me, going from the notes I’ve been reading from this book (and the only notes I can find about this anole), it was put into that ecomorph category from observations made by one of the herpetologists who wrote it. I can’t find anything else to confirm and given that mainland anoles do not neatly fit into the extremes that Caribbean anoles do, I think its probably somewhere in between and this may be just fine.
It’s epithet already means ‘Slender-footed,’ so I’m sure you want to call them that it would be understood! Personally I like ‘Charm.’
Thanks for reading!