From the pages of Chipojo Lab:
“Manuel recently published a paper in the Journal of Herpetology with Leo Fleishman and Maya Prebish, examining visual acuity and perception of Anolis dewlap patterns. Yesterday, a news feature came out about the article in El Nuevo Día, sharing the findings en español. Keep scrolling below for an English translation!”
Read the entire, extremely interesting post here!
A while back, Nancy Greig, Director of the Cockrell Butterfly Center at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, reported on an interaction with Freddie, her 27-pound dog, and a brown anole. Well, Freddie’s been at it again!
Here’s what Nancy has to say:
That dog-Anolis sagrei interaction I sent a photo of several months ago was not a one-off. Yesterday Freddie encountered another good-sized male that again would not back down. He could have run away, but seemed to think he was much bigger that he was.
I also “tested” him by touching his tail. He opened his mouth and extended his dewlap (I did this more than once), but did not try to run away. He could easily have run to hide, but like the first one, was extremely feisty (or had a death wish). I’m not sure if he eventually got away, but he certainly had many opportunities that he did not take.
I think it’s just the big male anoles that are so tough/stupid. The smaller ones run away.
Photo by djhiker, iNaturalist
Congratulations on the 46th President to all the Americans! Its only day 2 so he still’s brand new, but that doesn’t mean the work is done!
Speaking of work, I’ve been thinking about this anole (previously seen here) since Anolis bartschi.
Anolis lucius, or the Slender Cliff anole, is another endemic Cuban anole. It can be found close to urban areas and in similar karstic habitats to the Western Cliff anole. They also can be found inside caves where they also lay their eggs, sticking them to the walls (Hardy, 1957). They have a cyclical reproductive cycle, mating and laying their eggs in the wet season, after egg production occurs in the dry season.
Photo by Alex Alfil, iNaturalist
Slender Cliff anoles have a really pretty design with almost circular striping at the top of their heads and striping down their sides. They have a translucent lower eyelid, the purpose of which is unknown. Possibly to help filter out light when they initially emerge from the caves? Is anyone studying these anoles right now? Can you email me? For science??
Photo by Shea Lambert
In the meantime, here’s a paper about winter aggregation. Socially distant huddles! Cute!
Adult male Anolis onca from Isla de Margarita basking, by Gabriel N. Ugueto
We all know that anoles have subdigital lamellae; however, there is one species in which these lamellae are lacking: Anolis onca, which is known for being a sand-dwelling anole. In 2011, Dr. Jennifer Velásquez and colleagues published a paper in SABER, in which they studied the differences in thermal ecology and the activity pattern of male and female Anolis onca in Araya Peninsula, Venezuela, during the dry and wet season in a dry forest (10 m a.s.l). This study was conducted from September 2004 to April 2005, during which time 56 individuals were captured (15 females and 41 males). Dr. Velásquez and colleagues measured body temperature (Tb), substrate temperature (Ts) on the capture site, and air temperature (Ta).
Dr. Velásquez and colleagues found that in males and females, the Tb was higher during the dry season compared to the wet season: 33.6 ºC (30.0 – 37.2; n = 23) and 33.6 ºC (30.0 – 35.5; n = 7) for males and females, respectively, during the rainy season, and 34.4 ºC (33.0 – 35.8; n = 18) and 34.3 ºC (34.0 – 35.7; n = 8) during the dry season. Mean Ta and Ts were also higher during the dry season compared to the rainy season; during the dry season, Ta was 37.4 ± 0.69 ºC (n = 30) and Ts was 38.4 ± 0.69 ºC (n = 30), while during the rainy season, Ta was 33.9 ± 0.82 ºC (n = 26) and Ts was 34.9 ± 1.58 ºC (n = 26). In addition, Dr. Velásquez and colleagues found that A. onca changes its timing of activity depending on the season. During the rainy season, A. onca is more active from 9:00 am to 10:00 am, and during the dry season from 12:00 am to 1:00 pm; during both seasons, there is low activity from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm.
The authors argued that there is a relationship between Tb, Ta and Ts during the rainy and the dry season, in which the thermophysiology of A. onca is influenced by the climate variability of the microhabitat it occupies, suggesting that this species is a thermoconformer. In conclusion, the body temperature of this species varies during the day and across seasons, and it also varies as air and substrate temperature vary.
Abstract:
Aspects of the thermal ecology and activity pattern of the lizard, Anolis onca, during the dry and rainy season, and both periods in a belt of xerophytic forest located in the Araya Peninsula, Sucre state, Venezuela. The mean body temperature of A. onca was 33.9 ± 1.50 ºC in both periods to A. onca, while it reached 34.4 ± 0.75 ºC during the drought period and 33.6 ± 1.87 °C during the rainy period. In both climate periods, we found positive and significant correlations between body temperature with air and substrate temperature. The results suggest that thermoregulation is done passively, influenced by microhabitat temperature (air and substrate). There was a unimodal daily activity pattern during both periods. The thermal niche breadth was greater in males, while niche overlap between sexes was higher during the rainy period.
Hello all,
Ben Marshall and my colleagues at the Reptile Database have recently tried to take stock of the reptile photos on some of the most prominent web sites
Anolis porcatus, female, near Matanzas, Cuba – a close relative of the most photographed Anolis ever, A. carolinensis.
that collect nature photos, namely, iNaturalist, Flickr, CalPhotos, HerpMapper, Wikimedia, and the Reptile Database itself. We came up with more than 1 million reptile photos, the vast majority being on iNat. While the Reptile Database has much fewer photos overall, we do have photos of close to 6000 reptile species (with iNat having about 6500 species). While about 8000 reptile species have photos on these sites, almost 2000 have photos in only one of them (see Marshall et al. 2020 for details).
That begs the question “how do anoles fit into that picture?” — literally. Of the 436 species of anoles that the Reptile Database currently lists, at least 367 have photos on some of these websites, again with iNat leading (302 species), and all the others trailing far behind with Flickr (177), the Reptile Database (173), Calphotos (101), Herpmapper (92), and Wikimedia (55). Not surprisingly, both Anolis carolinensis and A. sagrei are among the top-10 most photographed reptiles with about 30,000 photos each on iNaturalist alone! By contrast, there are at least 67 species of anole of which there seem to be no photos on any of these sites (and possibly nowhere else on the internet). Here is the list: Anolis_Photos (Excel spreadsheet).
As pointed out in our paper, photos are not just nice to look at, they do carry a substantial amount of information, as all anologists doubtlessly know: besides morphology, you can see behavior, diet, ecological adaptations, habitats, and many other things on a photo (or video).
That said, at the Reptile Database, we are increasingly moving towards standardized photos of reptile species, ideally showing diagnostic characters. To see what I am talking about, take a look at Levi Gray’s excellent dewlap panels that he has presented here at Anole Annals and in his blog. Similarly, over the past year or two, I have taken pictures of more than 1000 reptile specimens in various collections (mostly NOT of anoles, admittedly), mainly to document such characters. They will go into the Reptile Database over the coming year (or probably years). Below are two examples, Anolis reconditus from Jamaica, and A. carolinensis from the Bahamas.
Anolis reconditus, CMNAR 9931, from Jamaica. Note the keeled scales which are not visible on any of the photos on iNaturalist.
Anolis carolinensis, ZMB 18723, Nassau, Bahamas. Compare to A. reconditus.
Obviously, it would be better if we had photos like these of all anoles — or all reptiles for that matter. Well, we have to start somewhere. In addition to the >18,000 photos in the Reptile Database, we need many more to document morphological diversity. Again, one idea is to use these photos to extract information such as character data. So, if you happen to have photos of any of those undocumented (or under-documented) species, please consider sending them to photos@reptile-database.org — or to one of the other sites, of course. Thanks!
Hey there!
I’ve been wanting to do this anole for a while so I’m kind of excited. These posts keep me going sometimes when the news is rough. I hope anoles bring you some respite as well.
Anolis agassizi is an anole that is endemic to Malpelo Island (off the coast of Colombia).
The island has rocky terrain and no vegetation, and the anoles are not territorial, and will willingly overlap or share perches and food sources. The insects that they eat are mainly beetles that are attracted to the colonies of birds that nest there. They also seem to have an attraction to the colour orange.
Anolis agassizi males have an average SVL of 105.4 mm, and females at 85.2 mm. They are mainly predated on by the Malpelo (or Dotted) galliwasp and seabirds.
Large males have large nuchal crests that are permanently erect, unlike other anoles. The small morphs of the male anoles also differ in colour, having spotted heads like the females do. All males have very small dewlaps.
Photo by Daniel Vásquez-Restrepo, iNaturalist
Anolis marmoratus, by Kristin Winchell. This photo is featured in the Anole Annals 2021 calendar!
Last year, Rafael Alejandro Lara Resendiz (Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas del Noroeste and Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal) published a paper in Acta Biológica Colombiana, in which he summarizes nocturnal activities in exclusively diurnal reptiles and addresses the question of how this behavior affects their ecophysiology.
Ectotherms – reptiles, amphibians, fish, and most invertebrates – need environmental temperature to produce heat internally, meaning that these organisms depend upon an external source of heat to regulate their internal functions. Thermoregulation is a complex physiological process that is involved in every activity that allows ectotherms to survive in nature (e.g., feeding and reproductive behavior, growth patterns, locomotion, digestion). In this regard, ectotherm species differ in their thermoregulation behaviors; some species are more active during the day while others are active during the twilight. However, some species that are known to be diurnal have been found active during the twilight. Lara-Resendiz (2020) address four-point in his work. Specifically, he 1) reviews nocturnal activity events in reptiles considered exclusively diurnal; 2) discusses the ecophysiological implications on this topic; 3) identifies the aspects that have not yet been approached in-depth; and 4) proposes possible directions for future lines of research.
Several species that are known to be exclusively diurnal have been observed carrying out nighttime activities, including lizards (e.g., Agama, Anolis, Callisaurus, Dipsosaurus, Gerrhonotus, Liolaemus, Ophisaurus, Phrynosoma), snakes (e.g., Charina, Contia, Masticophis), tortoises (e.g., Gopherus, Geochelone), marine turtles (e.g., Chelonia). Particularly, reptiles inhabit a wide variety of habitats including tropical and cold areas, desserts, high and low elevation areas, and the sea. Living in this different environment may cause lizards to have different patterns of activities throughout the daytime or nighttime: geographical location and thermal environmental variability have a tight relationship with the period of activities of all ectotherms.
One hypothesis has been proposed to explain the nocturnal behavior in diurnal species, in which ectotherm species have different optimal temperatures in the photophase (daytime) and scotophase (nighttime). In this regard, by selecting different environmental temperatures during each phase species that are active during the day can also be active during the night. In some other cases, species that are known to be strictly diurnal can behave opportunistically during the night due to ecological or physiological conditions – high levels of humidity and/or low predation rate, and prey can be easily spotted. Another possible explanation of this change in the time of activity in lizards and snakes is the heterogeneity or homogeneity in the temperature variation in the environment, where species that inhabit stable habitats cannot increase the length of their foraging time, while those species in more heterogenous habitats have more opportunities to extend their activity period due to their wide-body temperature range; this hypothesis has not been tested yet.
Currently, ectotherm species are facing the consequences of the change in the global temperature because they depend on the temperature of their habitat. Climate change is causing species to overheat, therefore, changing their diurnal activity and increasing vulnerability in their population structure. Particularly, these effects have been stronger in the atropical ectotherms which are inhabiting places where the temperature is near their optimal temperature. This suggests that the nocturnal opportunistic behavior of some ectotherm species could be a response to the increasing temperatures.
In conclusion, we need to address questions regarding why these changes in the foraging activity of ectotherm is occurring, and how their ecology and physiology is or could be affected by foraging during the nighttime.
Abstract:
This review is the first to summarize published studies that document nocturnal activity events in reptiles previously considered exclusively diurnal. The ecophysiological implications of this nocturnal activity in tropical and high-latitude environments are described and discussed from the perspective of optimal activity temperature ranges, tolerance thresholds, activity periods, cathemerality, voluntary hypothermia, and its importance in the face of global climate change. Gaps in the research field are finally identified, and new lines of study are proposed.
Six-toed brown anole reported by DeVos et al. 2020 in Herp. Review
Read all about them in the most recent (December 2020) Natural History Notes section of Herpetological Review (searching on “Anolis” will get you to these reports expeditiously in the pdf).
From Mendyk et al., Herp. Review, 2020
Happy New Year!
I know this year has been off to… a start.
A lot has happened, and while someone else would avoid “getting political” in their scicomm, I think we should acknowledge that science is political. Voting was only one step to making America better, and that was threatened by people who want to continue to perpetuate racism and white supremacy. We all saw what happened. There’s no way that anyone calling the people who stormed a government building during an election process are patriots. There’s so much work to do, more than reading a book or following more Black scientists on social media. While those are good, being anti-racist and standing up against people who would seek to uphold these structures are continuous processes. I hope this new year brings you renewed resolve to be allies.
Now. Here’s to a good anole to start the year with.
Anolis bartschi, also known as the Western Cliff anole and West Cuban anole, is beautiful and peculiar.
Found in the Pinar del Rio, the westernmost province of Cuba, this anole lives on karstic (a type of limestone topography) hills, equipped with long hindlimbs and toes that help it get around the terrain. It can be found on the rock faces, cliffs, rock piles and in crevices.
It is one of two (known) anoles that completely lack a dewlap, but it does inflate its throat as a display, along with the usual anole head bobs. They are also one of the few species with communal nests, with the females laying their eggs in crevices on the sides and walls of caves. Female Western Cliff anoles can get up to 6.4 cm long (SVL) and the males about 7.5cm. They are also one of the few anoles with blue colouring.
Checking another box for uncommon anole behaviour, Western Cliff anoles squeak (Rodríguez Schettino et al.,1999)! And they may hang from their forelimbs, and walk with their toes raised. An individual may eat smaller anoles than themselves.
Western Cliff anoles are considered at a low extinction risk.
Like many anoles, we are still learning about more this anole and I can’t wait to find out more.
Photos by Shea Lambert and Yasel Alfonso
Anolis planiceps from Trinidad. Image from The Herpetology of Trinidad & Tobago.
I am a West Indian amateur herpetologist and member of the AA family for the past 5-6 years.
I have travelled and photo-documented anole species along the Eastern Caribbean archipelago from Curaçao in the south to Anguilla in the north. In so doing, the colour patterns of each endemic species have instilled a special thrill to my senses.
Anolis aeneus in Trinidad. Photo from The Herpetology of Trinidad & Tobago
However, it is in my home island of Trinidad where a unique spectacle lays in wait of thoughtful analysis. In the urban areas of Port-of-Spain (especially in the suburb of Woodbrook), Anolis aeneus is common on fruit trees, running along house walls and even venturing through windows into home interiors, displaying their speckled glory.
Yet a mere 60 miles to the northeast in the rural village of Fishing Pond (my home village), the anole species A. planiceps rules unchallenged, without the presence of A. aeneus. However, the sighting of A. planiceps is as rare as hen’s teeth (to use a local saying), running along the ground to mount the nearest tree trunk when seen occasionally.
Instead, along my house walls (in that rural area), three lizard species predominate: Ameiva atrigularis and Cnemidophorus lemniscatus, both teiid ground dwellers, as well as Gonatodes vittatus, a gekkonid tree/wall climber. Occasionally, three other species can be seen: Polychrus marmoratus and Tropidurus plica, in the same family as anoles, as well as Mabuya bistrata, a skink in the Scincidae family. The last three are known to be tree/wall climbers. None of these six species are likely to be seen in the urban areas previously mentioned, where household cats and early morning birds seem not to deter the presence of A. aeneus.
My question, therefore: does interspecific competition for food and habitat (and maybe predation) from the other six rural lizard species keep A. planiceps from having larger populations? No other Eastern Caribbean island seems to harbour such an anomaly, except maybe St.Vincent with its elusive A. griseus which is in an environment with few other lizard species.
I await the views of the more learned and experienced members of the AA family.
In closing I’m aware that A. aeneus‘ home base extends to Grenada and the Grenadine Islands, while A. planiceps‘ base extends to Venezuela and Guyana.
See the volume: “A Field Guide to the Amphibian & Reptiles of Trinidad & Tobago” by John Murphy et al.
Cheers,
Reynold C. Boyce
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