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
Hello!
I hope you’ve been having a great holiday and that 2021 will be a great year for you. And what better way to end the year than with an anole?
Anolis homolechis, the Cuban White-fanned or Habana anole, is a trunk-ground anole native to Cuba. It is very similar in appearance to the Brown anole (Anolis sagrei), but, as the name suggests, has a stark white dewlap that may have light grey large stripes.
Photo by Alex Alfil, iNaturalist
White-fanned anoles are sympatric with Brown anoles; however they partition by temperature, with Brown anoles preferring hotter areas. White-fanned anoles can be found in the shade and can occur at higher elevations than Brown anoles as well (Lizards in an Evolutionary Tree, 2009).
Female Habana anoles have a very small dewlap, almost identical to the males, but with smaller, darker striping.
Photo by Wayne Fiddler, iNaturalist
Photo by Wayne Fiddler, iNaturalist
I hope you like this anole and happy New Year, friends! Thank you so much for a great, anole-filled year!
Anolis gundlachi. Photo by Alejandro Sanchez.
A recent study published in Biotropica by Beard et al. (2020) examines the impact of removing anoles (Anolis gundlachi, specifically) and perhaps the Caribbean’s most iconic frog, the coquí (Eleutherodactylus coqui), on arthropod densities.
Lizard and frog removal increases spider abundance, but does not cascade to increase herbivory.
Beard, K. H., Durham, S. L., Willig, M. R., & Zimmerman, J. K.
Abstract:
Insectivorous vertebrates, especially on islands, can exert top-down control on herbivorous prey, which can transfer through a food chain to reduce herbivory. However, in many systems insectivorous vertebrates feed on more than one trophic level, especially consuming arthropod predators, and this intraguild predation can diminish trophic cascades. Our goal was to determine, using an exclosure experiment, the relative importance of anole lizards and coqui frogs in controlling spider and arthropod abundances as well as herbivory rates in the understory of the Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico. We found that exclosures removing both anoles and coquis doubled spider abundance compared to exclosures with anoles and coquis at natural densities. The effect of coquis on spiders was greater and occurred more quickly than that of anoles, potentially because of the higher natural densities of coquis and removal of both vertebrates produced no interactive effects. We found support for the idea that anoles, but not coquis, reduce foliar arthropod abundances on one of the two studied plant species. However, there was also evidence that anole removal decreased herbivory, the opposite of what we would expect if there was a trophic cascade. Potential explanations include that anoles reduced predatory arthropods on foliage more than they reduced herbivorous arthropods. Results highlight that the food web in tabonuco forest is not simple and that there are complex and dynamic relationships among vertebrate insectivores, predatory arthropods, and herbivorous arthropods that do not consistently result in a trophic cascade.
Anolis bartschi. Photo by Shea Lambert
Anolis bartschi is one of the many spectacular anoles of Cuba. Hailing from a restricted area in western Cuba, little is known about this species (though see a previous Anole Annals dispatch).
A new paper just out in Phyllomedusa provides new diet data. Here’s some details:
Trophic ecology and morphology of Anolis bartschi (Squamata: Dactyloidae) in Viñales National Park, Cuba
L. Yusnaviel García-Padrón, Geydis León Amador, Mariela Mezquía Delgado, and Yusvel Martínez Serrano
Abstract
Trophic ecology and morphology of Anolis bartschi (Squamata: Dactyloidae) in Parque Nacional Viñales, Cuba. Little is known about the trophic ecology of most anoles of Cuba. Morphology is directly related to ecological functions in lizards, such as feeding strategies, interspecific competition or energetic demands linked to reproduction. Anolis bartschi is a regionally endemic species, restricted to karstic hills of western Cuba. Here, we offer new insights into the trophic ecology of this species, and its relation to head morphology. We captured 131 adults; males were larger than females in size and head width. Most of them had prey in their stomachs. Males consumed more prey than females, but the latter consumed larger prey. Prey overlap within sexes was detected in the dry season, but trophic segregation occurred in the rainy season. Hymenoptera was the most frequently consumed prey in both sexes. In addition, females ate Blattodea and Coleoptera, and males consumed more Diptera. We suggest that this lizard prefers sedentary rather than mobile prey. According to our dataset and field observations, A. bartschi is a bimodal forager lizard, but research on temporal (daily and annual) variation in diet is recommended for a proper forage classification of this lizard.
Here is a short film I made concerning green and brown anoles in Florida and their behaviors and physical differences. Follow me on Instagram @dailyanole!
Photo by Jake Scott, iNaturalist
Hello again!
Hope you all are doing great. I just finished my finals and two applications to PhD programs (so far) so fingers crossed for me???
I wanna talk about another (mostly) brown-coloured anole today since I feel like there’s not enough appreciation for them.
Anolis distichus, the Bark Anole, is a trunk anole with about 16 subspecies, that ranges in colour from brown to grey to green. Their dewlaps also vary in colour and pattern with their population. Males and females look the same, but in this species only males have a dewlap.
Found in Haiti, Dominican Republic, central Bahamas and, of course, Florida, these anoles can be found in range of habitats. Bark anoles are kind of on the small side at about 127mm in length.
My favourite thing about the Bark Anole is the patterning that gives it its name. The striping mimics the roughness and shapes found in tree bark, making it kind of invisible sometimes. Quite an example of perfect camouflage.
There’s been a lot of research on the anole, particularly looking into its subspecies and if any of them are their own species. Currently, this doesn’t seem to be the case quite yet.
Maybe. There’s a lot of conversation about just how much variation there is or isn’t with this species.
Photo by djhiker, iNaturalist
1st place: Two Anolis lineatus by Matthijs van den Burg.
Aryeh Miller and Ansley Petherick
Thank you once again to everyone who participated in this year’s Anole Annals photo contest! We received over 400 total votes from 14 different countries, and now we’re ready to announce the results. First up, the grand prize winner, is the above photo of two Anolis lineatus from Aruba taken by Matthijs van den Burg. The second place winner is below, Anolis polylepis from the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica, by Anna Thonis. Congratulations!
2nd place: Anolis polylepis by Anna Thonis.
The rest of the winners are below, and their photos can be seen in the 2021 calendar here! Click the link to order your calendar.
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