I am most interested in understanding how different species of lizards live together. Specifically, I research the ecological mechanisms that facilitate coexistence and the subsequent evolutionary consequences. I am a post-doc in the Losos Lab at Washington University in St. Louis. Website: www.jamesTstroud.com
Cabela’s telescopic panfish poles (in both 10′ and 12′ versions) are currently on sale, reduced from $27.99 to $17.49 per pole. These are currently regarded as the best product in the anole noosing game (1,2,3).
Telescopic panfish poles on sale here.
Get them while you can!
I recently found this adult male Cuban brown anole (Anolis sagrei) in Miami, FL.
He isn’t in particularly good shape by the looks of it! Can anyone shed any light on what might have happened?
Adult male Cuban brown anole (Anolis sagrei) caught in Fairchild Tropical Botanical Gardens, Miami FL
As a follow up to my recent posts on lamella scale counts on toepads, I thought I would share a tutorial I created for measuring toepad length and width using the program ImageJ. ImageJ is a free, open-access program that allows you to perform a suite of analyses on pictures or scans. I hope this could be a useful tool for graduate students, as well as research technicians and assistants.
Measuring the width of a Cuban brown anole (Anolis sagrei) toepad using ImageJ
Tutorial: How to measure Anolis toepad length and width using ImageJ
You can download ImageJ from here.
Feel free to use and distribute as you need! If anyone has any comments, or spots any recommendations or improvements that can be made, then please feel free to contact me.
I have now compiled the results of the survey I previously posted here on Anole Annals. I asked readers at what point on the image below would they stop counting scales if conducting toepad scale counts?
Fig 1. Lamellae numbered 1-51 on the 4th digit of an Anolis lizard hindfoot
As expected, there was a lot of disagreement! However despite some confusion, scale 32, roughly coinciding with the joining of the second to the third phalanx, was a clear favourite (Fig 2, below) (see Kevin De Quieroz’s comment here regarding some confusion with phalanx numbering).
Fig 2. AA readers choice of where one should stop counting during toepad scale counts.
However, I was most interested in the demography of the surveyors. I have met other graduate students confused about this topic, and relevant guidance material seems limited to anecdotes. Would we then expect there to be most confusion among contributors who have never published scale count data?
Fig 3. Survey data broken down into publication record: a) those that have never published scientific articles which include toepad scale counts (blue), b) those that have published a scientific article including toepad scale count data (red), and c) those which have published but were not responsible for conducting the scale counts (green).
The majority (60%) of votes from published researchers fell among scales 32-33, suggesting fairly high agreement on the general area. Only 40% of non-published voters selected these scales, with moderate confusion from scales 24-33 (although a peak at 32 did mirror those of published researchers). Too few votes from researchers that had published but not conducted scale counts themselves were collected to be interpretable.
This survey was not intended to standardize the position at which researchers should conduct toepad scale counts. The functional significance of toepads changes between species, and therefore that should be an important consideration in respect to the ecological/evolutionary question at hand. Those votes towards the higher end of the spectrum (scales 50-51, comprising a scale count of the entire digit) could be important data for species identification and morphological taxonomy. There could be an opportunity for a neat review/methods paper here, contact me if you are interested in more details!
Hi everyone, I apologise for the repeat post. As mentioned by Martha, it may not have been obvious from the initial post that there was a survey inside!
So, please forgive me while I repost with an amended title in the hope of getting a few more poll participants. We are only just into double figures (including only 3 of you who have previously published on the subject) – surely we can do better than that! Thank you to everyone that has already contributed. I will present the results in a follow up post in week or so depending on participant activity.
****
One of the age old questions in anole morphology is at what point do you stop counting lamellae on the toepad?
Without giving any more information on various techniques or methods, I thought it would be interesting to ask the AA community their personal opinions. Below I have attached a flatbed scan of a toepad. Could people please fill out the corresponding poll below, and I will present the results in a follow up post!
Lamellae numbered 1-51 on the 4th digit of an Anolis lizard hindfoot
One of the age old questions in anole morphology is at what point do you stop counting lamellae on the toepad?
Without giving any more information on various techniques or methods, I thought it would be interesting to ask the AA community their personal opinions. Below I have attached a flatbed scan of a toepad. Could people please fill out the corresponding poll below, and I will present the results in a follow up post!
Lamellae numbered 1-51 on the 4th digit of an Anolis lizard hindfoot
Spring is the season for spotting crown-giant anoles in Miami!
I was hosting (recently graduated Lacertid-ophile, although closet anologist) Dr. Robert Heathcote for a few days this week, and after his failed attempt at catching a Cuban knight anole (A. equestris) a fortnight previous, I had promised to deliver him another! Now, I imagine many AA readers may chuckle at someone foolish enough to promise a crown-giant observation (myself included). Much to my relief luck was on our side and we managed to spot not one, but TWO species practically on top of each other!
A Cuban knight anole (A. equestris) and Jamaican giant anole (A. garmani) perched within 1-2m of each other in Miami FL – April 2nd 2014, JStroud
Cuban knight anoles (A. equestris) and Jamaican giant anoles (A. garmani) are both non-native introduced species to south Florida.
A. equestris (left) and A. garmani (right) – habitat overlap in Miami FL, JStroud
A common concept in ecology is that predators have a strong influence on the behaviour of prey species. Anolis lizards have been used as a classic model system to investigate the effect of predator presence on the behavioural response of prey species. On small experimental islands in the Bahamas the manipulated introduction of curly-tailed lizards (Leiocephalus carinatus), a large terrestrial anole-predator, has resulted in brown anoles (Anolis sagrei) shifting higher up in the vegetation, presumably in an understandable effort to avoid being eaten (1, 2, 3). However, predator-prey interactions such as these which may shape community structure are often difficult to observe.
Here in Miami FL we have a rich and diverse, although largely non-native, lizard community. There are two species of “crown-giant” anoles, the Cuban knight anole (A. equestris) and the Jamaican giant anole (A. garmani), that could be potential predators of smaller anoles in the canopy of trees and upper half of tree trunks (although see Giery et al. 2013 for an empirical analysis that suggests this may not be the case). Additionally, there are several large, terrestrial lizards present which may be filling a similar role to curly-tails in the Bahamas.
Potential lizard predators in south Florida:
– *Red-headed agama (Agama agama)
– *Cuban knight anole (Anolis equestris)
– Jamaican giant anole (Anolis garmani)
– *Brown basilisk (Basiliscus vittatus)
– Spiny tailed iguana (Ctenosaura similis)
– Curly-tail lizard (Leiocephalus carinatus)
– Giant day gecko (Phelsuma grandis)
– Black and white tegu (Tupinambis merianae)
*Present at Fairchild Tropical Botanical Gardens
Earlier this afternoon, while taking a break from my office at Fairchild Tropical Botanical Gardens (a hot spot for any anologist visiting Miami; 1, 2, 3, 4) in a typical graduate student effort to put off work that I should be doing instead, fellow lab member Evan Rehm and I noticed some scuffling in a nearby bush. At around 2.5m, and admittedly on relatively precarious branches by this stage, sat an adult female African red-headed agama (A. agama) around 30cm from an adamantly motionless adult male Cuban brown anole (A. sagrei)! As we moved towards the bush the agama was quick to ungraciously thump itself to the floor, while the brown anole remained still. On closer inspection, it soon became apparent why both lizards were so high.
Adult male Cuban brown anole (A. sagrei) found ~2.5m high in Miami FL, supposedly following a predation attempt from an African red-headed agama (A. agama) – JStroud
The significance of tail loss/damage in a population is still debated. The classical view argues that high proportions of tail damage indicates high predation pressure, therefore prey populations are under high predation stress (1). Alternatively, high proportions of tail damage could indicate low predator efficiency, which would suggest prey populations are experiencing low predation stress (1, 2). But the debate doesn’t stop there! Having already lost a tail, a lizard may experience either a resulting increase or decrease in predation depending on the predator species and its associated foraging tactic (1).
The extent of tail damage is clearer in this photo. The lizard had autotomised the lower half of it’s tail however a secondary half-completed break is also evident – JStroud
African red-headed agamas (A. agama) are similar morphologically to curly-tailed lizards (L. carinatus), although are taxonomically distinct (Agamidae and Leiocephalidae, respectively). Predation of anoles by agamas in Miami has not previously been officially recorded, and the impact of these large predators remains unclear. Unlike in the Bahamas, there are multiple predators in the same geographic vicinity that anoles need to be aware of. For example, at Fairchild, brown anoles (A. sagrei) could be eaten from below by agamas, eaten at intermediate levels by basilisks and eaten from above by knight anoles!
South Florida is a tough place to be an anole!
Adult male African red-headed agama (A. agama) at Fairchild Tropical Botanical Gardens, Miami FL. The population of agamas is localised to the botanical gardens; the source remains unclear but is likely an introduction from the pet trade – JStroud
Although it may seem paradoxical given their natural history, I often see nocturnal geckos basking during the day. They usually occupy trunks between 1-3m, which is prime trunk-ground and trunk ecomorph territory. In Miami we have two of the former (A. sagrei and A. cristatellus), and one of the latter (A. distichus). Here is a photo fresh from today showing such overlap in habitat use. I have yet to see any interactions between anoles and geckos in Miami, has anyone else observed any here or elsewhere?
Cuban brown anole (Anolis sagrei – left) and gecko (Hemidactylus sp., most likely H. mabouia – right) sharing habitat space
Of note – this was taken 23rd Feb 2014 in south Miami (FL) at roughly 1:30pm. It’s hot and sunny.
Community ecology is a confusing field, confounded by the interchangeable use of many fundamental terms.
Recently, a group of graduate students and I discussed this strange paradigm and thought we would see what people’s own interpretations were.
If you have a spare 5 minutes while drinking your morning coffee, please could you fill out this short (4 question!) poll asking you to give your definition for; ‘community’, ‘assemblage’, ‘guild’ and ‘ensemble’. It will be cool to see how people’s opinions differ!
Many thanks
James
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