Category: Ask the Experts Page 5 of 7

A 'slug' next to a healthy, freshly laid egg. The scale bars in millimeters.

In December, Rich posted on infertile eggs occasionally produced by anoles, also known as slugs.  These eggs are small, yellow, and uncalcified. We have found that females typically lay slugs in different locations than fertile eggs. In our breeding colony,  nearly every viable egg is deposited in egg laying substrate (moistened vermiculite in a plastic yogurt container), whereas slugs are found on nearly any surface but these cups, as described in a previous comment by William Baugher.

As our hybridization experiment in distichoids proceeds, it has become clear that these inviable eggs may be an important measure of the success of hybrid matings. There are some really great studies on viable anole eggs in the reproductive biology literature (1, 2, and 3, to name a few), but I have had no luck in finding papers that discuss, or even mention the production of, these inviable eggs. Since the last post on this subject AA readership has gone up and I am hoping that someone out there has some additional information on the phenomenon.

Read More

Thom, Sanger, Michele Johnson, and I have been working on a paper on juvenile morphology and behavior in an anole community in Barahona, Dominican Republic. Our only problem is that A. brevirostris juveniles move so fast, we didn’t get any photos while we observed them.

So…does anyone have a photo of an A. brevirostris juvenile? If so, you will of course receive credit for your photo in addition to truckloads of good karma!

In 1923 Thomas Barbour described the species Diaphoranolis brooksi, a species that is currently considered conspecific with Anolis insignis. Apparently, his main reason for recognizing Diaphoranolis as a genus separate from Anolis was the structure of the gular appendage (dewlap), which he judged to be non-extensible. I’m wondering if any of you anolologists who have experience with Anolis insignis have examined the dewlap of that species and can refute or confirm Barbour’s conclusion (or otherwise comment on it). Thanks.

Does anybody have some pictures of wild Anolis smallwoodi or Anolis ricordii that they could send me?  If so, please send them to me at wbaugher@nashvillezoo.org.  They are for personal use for comparing animals in a collection.  Thank you in advance for any help you can give me.

Hello anole enthusiasts!

A friend of mine was in Las Tablas, Puntarenas, Costa Rica, ~1850m and found these guys. They were sleeping on some overhanging roots where the ground had broken off near a cattle pasture. We were wondering about which species they belong to and thought the brilliant people here could help. Thanks!

Anoles cozy up in captivity. Photo by Huai-Ti Lin

This summer I have been breeding several populations of cybotoids to assess egg stage at laying in this environmentally-varied clade of anoles. The cybotoids are trunk-ground anoles from Hispaniola, which includes Anolis cybotes and related species. Captive animals often exhibit behaviors they normally may not perform in the wild, and my colony is no exception. I offer two examples and am wondering if the readers of this blog have come across similar phenomena. First, a female Anolis cybotes ate one of her eggs. When I came to search for eggs it was already in her mouth and, when I returned later, she had swallowed it. Second, the two anoles pictured here found a cozy sleeping spot together on their bamboo pole perch. Is it odd for females to eat their own eggs, or do anoles in captivity commonly do so? I should add that these lizards are properly fed, and so hunger is not likely to be the cause of the behavior. Do mating pairs warm up to each other when kept together in captivity, or do they generally keep a healthy distance even in a cage?