Category: Notes from the Field Page 13 of 22

Guadeloupe is composed of two islands whose shape is that of a butterfly and that were joined together in 1806 by the wooden Union Bridge and then the Gabarre Bridge in 1929:

Situated to the west, Basse-Terre has an area of 848 km2. This is a volcanic mountain whose summit is the Soufriere, located at 1467m altitude. It is covered with a dense rainforest with many rivers and waterfalls.
Situated to the east, Grande-Terre has an area of 586 km2. The substrate is limestone and consists of a plain bordered by a mangrove forest in the southwest, an irregular succession of hills called “les Grands Fonds” in the center and an arid plateau of rocky coasts in the north.

The species of endemic Anolis of Guadeloupe is called Anolis marmoratus, with reference to the orange marbling on the head of the specimens described by Dumeril and Bibron in 1837. In fact, Anolis marmoratus is a species which has 6 subspecies of Guadeloupe and six others on the islands around (La Désirade, Petite Terre, Marie Galante, Les Saintes, Les ilets Pigeons, Les Ilets Kahouanne, les Ilets Fajous).

Regarding Anolis marmoratus of Guadeloupe, the subspecies are:

Anolis marmoratus marmoratus

Anolis marmoratus marmoratus, which Lazell in 1962, noted as “the most beautiful anole he never saw.” It lives around Capesterre, at the southeast of Basse-terre. Adult male are apple-green, shading to blue on the tail and yellow-green on the limbs. The head, the neck and the orbital area are marbled with orange, the throat fan orange-yellow with yellow scales. Preliminary work we have conducted suggests that it could be classified as a trunk-ground ecomorph.

Anolis marmoratus girafus

Anolis marmoratus girafus that lives along the west coast of Basse-Terre in the driest area of this island.

Rare(ish) Puerto Rican Anoles

By Graham Reynolds

On April 6, 2012

In Natural History Observations, Notes from the Field

Another Revell Lab (Liam, Kristin, Graham) trip to Puerto Rico this spring, and another series of encounters with the diminutive Anolis occultus and the spectacular Anolis cuvieri. Both of these species can be quite challenging to find, but we have had some good success in several locations in the Puerto Rican karst region. In January, we observed many individuals of both species

And managed to get a few in-hand for pictures

We also found a juvenile cuvieri, which has a gray coloration and an ontogenetic shift to green as they age:

Unless they happen to be one of the brown morph adults,

Portion of the Dewlap 100% Transparent!

By Yoel Stuart

On March 29, 2012

In Natural History Observations, Notes from the Field

During our Anolis distichus work in the DR last summer, we found one male who had a portion of his dewlap that was completely transparent!

Holey dewlapped Anolis distichus from near Higuey

Of course, there was a hole in his dewlap. (Sorry Manuel).

It’s fairly common to find male anoles with damaged dewlaps. Sometimes there’s a hole punched through like the individual pictured here. (Did he snag it on a thorn? Was he pecked at by a bird?) Other times, the hyoid process is broken such that the dewlap doesn’t fully extend, if it extends at all. Yet these males often successfully hold territories that include females.

A previous post on AA asked, “What’s all the fuss about dewlaps?” Link to that post to read about research that experimentally reduced or disabled the dewlap to study the consequences. These studies did not find an appreciable effect of a disabled dewlap on the outcome of male-male battles (staged in the lab) or on copulation success (measured in the field after dewlap manipulation). These results suggest, counterintuitively, that dewlaps may not play a large role in reproductive success.

Anolis woodi at Las Alturas

By Ambika Kamath

On March 27, 2012

In Notes from the Field

Participating in the Organization for Tropical Studies’ course in tropical biology recently took me to amazing Las Alturas, a satellite field station of the Las Cruces Biological Station in southern Costa Rica. The site is adjacent to the La Amistad Biosphere Reserve, close to the border with Panama, and hiking around Las Alturas takes one into some beautiful primary forest. Returning from a long hike, course-mate Amy Miller and I happened upon this anole:

Anole at Las Alturas

Veragua Rainforest: An Anole Mecca

By Jonathan Losos

On March 18, 2012

In Notes from the Field

One of the many frogs at the Veragua Rainforest preserve. The frog diversity is so great, it almost rivals the anoles in interest. Photo from http://veraguarainforest.com/research/imagenes/overview_small.jpg

Fresh from our four day foray at La Selva, our class of intrepid herpetologists moved east to the Veragua Rainforest Research & Adventure Park. Take one glance at their website, and you’d think this is some tacky tourist trap. But you’d be wrong. Only four years old, this multi-purpose venue is a wonderful place for biodiversitistas of any sort. Admittedly, a bit too touristy at first glance—the place is a regular stop for cruise ship passengers to take a break from playing online slots at casinos in Colorado at EasyMobileCasino.com and to disembark for the day at the port city of Limon. The facility has excellent educational displays with wonderful live collections of frogs (in the Ranario), reptiles (Reptilio), butterflies and other insects. Not to mention the ziplines, which we were duty bound to use in our quest to locate canopy dwelling lizards (one probable A. lemurinus was cited approximately 25 meters high on a tree trunk).

But Veragua is much more than a fun place to stop-over.

More Cristatellus Adventures in Costa Rica

By Jonathan Losos

On March 17, 2012

In Notes from the Field

Brown basilisk. Photo from http://www.naturephoto-cz.com/photos/sevcik/brown-basilisk--_DSC9899.jpg

A little more than a year ago, this correspondent trekked to the eastern coast of Costa Rica to chronicle the spread of the invasive Puerto Rican anole, A. cristatellus. Introduced to the Caribbean port city of Limon many moons ago, we found that the crested anole has made its way down the coast to the vicinity of the Panamanian border, and speculated that it may also have crossed the bridge to the Land of the Canal. In addition, it has spread inland to the west, as far and as high as the town of Turrialba and, at lower elevations, to Siquirres, 60 km from Limon. However, 37 km further west, we failed to find it in Guapiles, though our visit was late in the day. Given its widespread occurrence at low-to-mid elevations, we predicted that the Puerto Ricans may some day advance far to the north and west, trampling through the Tortuguero area to Nicaragua and who knows how far westward?

Taking advantage of our herpetology class sojourn to Costa Rica, I led an intrepid expedition comprised of a freshman, a sophomore, and a graduate student to head eastward from the La Selva Biological Station to determine just how far these lizards have advanced.

La Selva Lucky Seven

By Jonathan Losos

On March 13, 2012

In Notes from the Field

Anolis carpenteri. Photo from http://ctaudubon.blogspot.com/2011/04/young-researchers-shine-during-costa_05.html

We notched the double anole hat trick in the most unexpected manner last night, as a female of that rarely seen species, A. carpenteri, presented itself sleeping at chest level on an isolated plant in the clearing. With a day yet to go, hope springs eternal that a resplendent green A. biporcatus will make it a lucky seven at La Selva.

News flash—breakfast! Just learned that last night, the team headed for a ditch filled with caimans found an A. biporcatus sleeping on a branch above the trail. Seven anole species in two days!

Seven anole species at one site (eight if we include the unseen A. pentaprion). Certainly, a lot of anole diversity, but not unheard of in any way. In fact, such diversity occurs regularly on the Cuba, Hispaniola, and Puerto. Yet, the anole ensemble here differs greatly from what we would see in a diverse Caribbean community. All species-rich assemblages in the Caribbean are extremely similar, composed primarily of the different ecomorph types. Usually, such a location would have very common trunk-ground and trunk-crown anoles, and then representatives of three or all four of the remaining ecomorph types. The remaining species would either be some of the “unique” habitat specialist types which occur only on one island, such as the rock wall specialist A.bartschi on Cuba or members of the Chamaelolis clade; or they would include multiple members of the same ecomorph type, such as several trunk-ground anoles that use different thermal microhabitats.

By contrast, the La Selva Eight bears little similarity to these assemblages.

Film on the Yasuni Region of Ecuador

By Alex Gunderson

On March 8, 2012

In Notes from the Field

Hello anolers. A friend of mine named Ryan Killackey is making a documentary film about the Yasuni region of Ecuador, home to indigenous tribes and incredible biodiversity (including anoles!). The region is also, not surprisingly, under pressure for development and the film is documenting that struggle.

Caught in the Act: Anole Sex and Post-coital Behavior

By Rich Glor

On March 4, 2012

In Notes from the Field

Anole Annals has certainly had its share of posts about anole sex (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4). Today I’m posting another photo of anoles having sex along with a rare shot of the immediate aftermath. As you can see in the photo on the right of a pair of Anolis chlorocyanus from the Dominican Republic, the male’s hemipenis generally remains exposed for a few a seconds after mating. During this time, the male tends to walks awkwardly away from the female while raising his pelvis off the substrate to get his junk in order.

A View Of The Anole Diversity Of The Colombian Caribbean Coast

By Juan Salvador Mendoza

On February 29, 2012

In Notes from the Field

Colombia holds more than 75 species of Anole lizards, making them the second most speciose vertebrate genus in our country next to the frog genus Pristimantis. Most species are shared with other countries of Central America and northern South America, but anoles have diverged in such an incredible way in Colombia that a large number of quite interesting and endemic species occur in the mountain highlands of the Andes, the insular portion of the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean and the Chocó and Amazonian lowlands. Thirteen anole species have been registered for the Caribbean region, including lowlands and serranías. Most of these species have not been studied and the remaining habitats are disappearing at an accelerated rate, which is the reason why I find myself motivated to write this note, focusing on one of the least known neotropical lizard biotas.

Anolis Onca a desert sand dweller, Guajira, Colombia. Photo courtesy of Luis Alberto Rueda 2012

Sierra Nevada lonely twig anole. Anolis solitarius from Sierra Nevada de santa Marta (photo by Luis Alberto Rueda)

The Caribbean lowlands are one of the hottest and driest places in Colombia. This region extends from the northern Guajira deserts to the floodable plains of Cordoba. Its interior dominant habitats include seasonal dry forests, desert formations and riparian ecosystems. These habitats have been considered to be threatened by deforestation; only 1% of the dry forest formations still remain, which is why it is considered one of the most vulnerable ecosystems in the nation next to cloud forests and paramos. Islands can be those land surfaces surrounded by water or those which have simply been isolated preventing migration of dispersal-limited species such as small vertebrates. Islands as the San Andres archipelago and the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta have been isolated for thousands of years in such a way that most of the fauna that inhabits them is endemic. Anoles are not the exception; three endemics are registered for the cloud forests of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (Anolis santamartae, A. menta, A. solitarius) and two species for the San Andres and Providencia islands (Anolis Pinchoti, A. concolor).