Name the Species

The following West Indian species are common in their appropriate island habitats, but these here may not look typical for their species. Either the form is a geographic color morph or just kind of non representive of the species.

For some of you sage anolologists this may be somewhat easy, however I’d be curious to know how good some of you are…

I will provide answers in a few days. Have fun.

1.

2.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.

4.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5.

6.

7.

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18 Comments

  1. I’ll take a stab at identifying these, but I’m not 100% certain of any. Numbers 1 and 6 don’t look like anything I’ve ever seen, but that’s not going to stop me from taking wild guesses: 1. gray-headed A. evermanni, 2. A. pulchellus, 3. A. cristatellus, 4. A. grahami (likely from eastern Jamaica), 5. A. lineatopus, 6. crazy blue/green A. stratulus, 7. A. sagrei.

  2. Jonathan Losos

    I’m taking this one step at a time. Rich needs to get down to the Lesser Antilles and see some roquet group. #1 looks like trinitatis to me. And I also think #4 is grahami.

    • I was hoping you’d be amused by my all Greater Antilles guesses. I suspect 5 might be Lesser Antillean as well.

      • Jonathan Losos

        #5 is confounding. Could it be one of those wacky sagrei group anoles from Cuba? rubribarbus, or something nutty like that?

        • I don’t think its a sagrei relative. I might be getting fooled by the perspective, but the snout looks too shallow.

  3. Jonathan Losos

    #6–how about aeneus?

  4. You guys don’t think (1) looks like A. marmoratus speciosus (e.g., 1, 2)? I agree that (3) looks like A. cristatellus. (2) Looks more like A. krugi than A. pulchellus, but perhaps that is the trick . . . .

    • Yes, I think 1 is more likely something I just haven’t seen before from the Lesser Antilles. I thought 2 looked more like pulchellus, but I haven’t been to Puerto Rico for a while.

  5. Joe Burgess

    Very good over all, but still two remain…

    1. A. trinitatis from the Mesopotamia region. Differ from most of the islands all (or mostly) green to blue green anoles with blue orbital areas.
    2. A. pulchellus from Tortola (Mt Sage). When I saw this I thought it was A.krugi because of the yellow which was very different from pulchellus on P.R. which are more straw colored.
    3. Some of you came very close, but still no cigar
    4. A. graham from the Hellshire Hills. A. gorgonae eat your heart out.
    5. This is a tough one
    6. A. aeneus from Bequia Island, Grenadines. Most from this archipelago do not have this much color.
    7. A. sagrei from Eleuthera Bahamas. This guy looked more impressive from 10 meters; like a little tiger lizard. Only saw one other male with this pattern.

    Keep trying on 3 & 5.

    • #3 must be a close relative of A. cristatellus like cooki, scriptus or ernestwilliamsi. I’m going to guess scriptus.

      • Joe Burgess

        A. scriptus is correct! This one is from Big Ambergris on the Caicos bank. They only show this “cinamon” coloration for thermoregulating. Normally, they are biege with (or without) yellowish extremities.

    • Is it too early for a hint on 5?

      • Joe Burgess

        Hint for 5…
        Ignore the Greater Antilles in your search for this highly variable species!

  6. In regards to #5, I have seen some A. roquet come through with that mottled back pattern. How about that?

  7. Joe Burgess

    I will post answer to #5 morning of the 21st.
    Click on the image to see proper characteristics, the page seems to have laterally compressed some of the images which may impede ID based on morphology like snout length.

  8. Jonathan Losos

    #5: Anolis marmoratus giraffus!

  9. Joe Burgess

    And Jonathan is correct!

    #5 is A.m.giraffus!

    While this lizard was an adult, is was retaining more of an intense juv. pattern.

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