Any reason to think these anoles, which arrived on Canouan in a container, presumably from Florida, are anything other than Anolis carolinensis?
Category: Ask the Experts Page 6 of 7
A dewlap photograph of Anolis ricordii from the western Dominican Republic.
If I had a nickel for each time I’ve been asked whether the correct spelling of the scientific name for Ricord’s Giant Anole is Anolis ricordii with two ‘i’s or Anolis ricordi with one ‘i,’ I’d have at least 15 cents. Way back in 1837, Bibron described this species as Anolis ricordii, in honor of “M. Ricord.” Why then, do some people use a single ‘i’ form that disagrees with the original description? I attempt to answer this question in this post, while also establishing the fact that the double ‘ii’ spelling is correct.
Over the years, many talks on anole dewlaps have featured an image from Nicholson et al.’s 2007 paper from PLoS One on anole dewlap evolution (I saw this image at least once at JMIH this year). Now that its been almost five years since this image was published, I think its time we came up with a new collage of anole dewlaps. Which dewlaps should we include? Who’s got dewlap photos to share for the effort? If you’ve got some nice photos to share for the collage please post them here at Anole Annals and I’ll put them all together to generate our anole community dewlap collage! See the guidelines for posting for instructions on how to post images as part of a comment. (For my part, I’ve accumulated lots of photos from the Greater Antilles, but have almost nothing from the mainland or the Lesser Antilles.)
Back in my first post on this topic, I described some of the equipment I use to film anole behavior. I ended with a promise of a second entry replete with example videos to outline specific techniques I use to get useful footage. I also wrote that hi-definition videos are troublesome to play, let alone edit, on many computers. Well, the egg is partially on my face, because I’ve been having trouble finding a good way to edit standard definition videos. Playback, the important part for my research, is flawless, but iMovie doesn’t like to deal with the files.
Rather than balk at this challenge any longer, I decided to turn to the community (that’s you, Anole Annals reader) for help. So those of you out there who have done video editing, can you recommend a program to use (or to avoid)? Cost and ease of learning are prime considerations for me right now. Please leave comments, and thanks in advance for any input.
Does anyone out there have good info or maybe a paper or two about the vitamin A requirement for Anolis lizards? We are having minor eye issues in our collection from time to time and when given vitamin A supplements, the problems seem to go away. They are always provided with the same vitamin/mineral/calcium suppliments as our other lizards, but I thought that maybe their requirement for the vitamin was greater than the other animals in our collection. Sometimes even the babies come out with “gunky” eyes, and we are not sure of the cause. Does anyone else ever have this problem?
Any help would be much appreciated. We are also looking for “normal” blood level values for these lizards, as our studies have shown that they have a much higher calcium level than we expected, especially in females.
Thanks for any help,
Will
Juvenile A. coelestinus from the Dominican Republic (photo T. Sanger)
Have you ever tried to collect elusive twig anoles? What about small juveniles living in the leaf litter or dense foliage? If you are interested in these or many other hard to find species you have almost undoubtedly gone searching for them at night when the unsuspecting lizards lie sleeping on twigs and leaves ripe for the picking. You have most likely also struggled with the decision of what light to carry during these difficult missions. From hardware store handhelds to the latest and greatest light used for international climbing expeditions, the options can be mind-boggling (as well as the price of some high end lights!). With field seasons fast approaching I decided that it would be a good idea to share some of my thoughts regarding the choice of lights used for night herping.*
An avid AA reader writes: “Since you’re always on the cutting edge of everything, are Cabela’s Panfish Poles still your favorite noosing implement, or has something better shown up on the market?” Indeed, this reporter is still a fan of said product. Light, collapsing to pocket size, and cheap, these are the real deal for anole wrangling. Extendable to 10’ to 14’, they are suited for all but the most arboreal of anoles. Though a bit fragile—it’s easy to break the most distal segment—their low price more than compensates; just bring a few to the field and you’ll be fine (note added in press: a quick look at their website shows the price has gone up! Not quite as cheap as in the old days). Warning: although they’re tough enough for most anoles, if you swing a good sized crown-giant out of tree, you’ll probably snap off the end of the pole (and then have an infuriated anole with a noose and pole tip around its neck to contend with). Still, all-in-all, this is the best on the market. Anyone care to differ?
From the British Medical Journal, 1900
I was recently reading a paper in which the phrase “anoline lizards” was frequently used, and it got me thinking: Just what does “anoline” mean? Is it synonymous with “anole”? And is it correct usage? Needless to say, the word is not in standard dictionaries.
Part of the potential confusion comes from the way it was used in the past, at least by some. Back in the old days, pre-molecular data, the standard wisdom was that the genera Chamaeleolis, Chamaelinorops, and Phenacosaurus were early offshoots of the anole radiation that had evolved prior to Anolis. Hence, Ernest Williams used the term “anoline” to refer to them, as well as Anolis species. In this sense, “anoline” might be construed to apply more broadly than just to members of the genus Anolis (and, of course, should not be confused with “anoloid” which referred to an even broader phylogenetic grouping that included other, more distantly related lizards). In this sense, “anoline” had a technical meaning beyond just Anolis. But…some workers, even back then, referred to these three other genera as “anoles” as well. Moreover, we now are confident that the three genera arose within Anolis, which leads most modern workers to no longer recognize those genera, but rather subsume the species within Anolis (though it is still perfectly appropriate to recognize them as subclades of Anolis).
I’ve enjoyed this type of post and figured I would contribute myself. On a trip to Costa Rica in early 2010, I had the pleasure of wandering around catching all the anoles I could see. Although most of my photos have unfortunately been lost in a massive computer/hard drive failure, I have recovered a few shots from the field. Here are photos (of two species) that always get me thinking about dewlap coloration, and maybe they will get you thinking more about that too. So what are the species, everyone?
I recently received an email from UC Davis undergraduate and lizard enthusiast, Kirk Sato. On a recent trip to Belize, Kirk snapped a great photograph of this anole and he wants to know what species it is. What are your ideas, folks?
Unidentified anole from Belize