Anole Annals — Valentine’s Day Special

DSCN2960-2

Peter Uetz of the Reptile Database fame sends the following Valentine’s Day greetings:

DSCN3297-2If you or your significant other loves anoles, you may want to show her/him this hearty Anolis distichus (Figure 2960, above) on occasion of today’s Valentine’s Day. It clearly shows a heart on it’s head. Some other specimens such as the couple in Figure 3297 (right, from locality 1 in the Google map), also show a heart although it’s not as pronounced. Also note their blunt coloration which doesn’t seem to affect their affection.

Anolis distichus is pretty variable and even within this subspecies, A. d. dominicensis Reinhardt & Lütken 1863, to which all these specimen belong, there is considerable variation. By the way, the guy with the heart (Figure 2960) is from the same locality 3 as two other specimens which do not have a heart (Figures 2948 and 2968) although they display a similar shape on their heads. Figure 3087 shows yet another specimen for comparison, this time from locality 2.

2968

2968

DSCN2948-2

2948

3087

3087

Various authors have described a dozen subspecies from Hispaniola (reviewed in Schwartz 1971, see map 2 from that paper). The northern half of Hispaniola is almost entirely in the hands of A. d. dominicensis, hence the specimens on the photos have been assigned to that subspecies.

Hispaniola terrain map-2

Note that Glor & Laport 2012 elevated several Dominican subspecies of A. distichus to full species level, namely A. dominicensis, A. favillarum, A. ignigularis, A. properus, and A. ravitergum. The Reptile Database hasn’t followed this yet because their geographic sampling was limited to relatively few localities and they did not provide any updated diagnoses (but their recommendations have been recorded in the database). Also, there seems to be hybridization among several of these populations.

Photo localities:

2948: 3

2960: 3

2968: 3

3087: 2

3297: 1

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Miguel Landestoy and Luke Mahler who helped with the IDs.

References

Glor, Richard E.; Robert G. Laport 2012. Are subspecies of Anolis lizards that differ in dewlap color and pattern also genetically distinct? A mitochondrial analysis. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 64 (2): 255-260.   http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1055790310004276

Schwartz, A. 1968. Geographic variation in Anolis distichus Cope (Lacertilia, Iguanidae) in the Bahama Islands and Hispaniola. Bull. Mus. comp. Zool. Harvard 137 (2): 255- 309.  http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/4784182

Schwartz, A. 1971. Anolis distichusCatalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (108)

(used to be available online at ZenScientist, and maybe soon at the SSAR website again).

Anolis distichus in the Reptile Database

http://reptile-database.reptarium.cz//species?genus=Anolis&species=distichus

(an extended synonymy and distribution section will appear in the next database release)

The database entry also has another 43 references most of which are available online.

Jonathan Losos

Previous

11th Latin American Congress of Herpetology

Next

Anolis sagrei Now in the Southern Hemisphere, First Record for South America

1 Comment

  1. Living in the Carolinas, I’ve really taken this genus for granted. This site has really given me more of an appreciation for Anolis lizards and I really enjoy coming on here periodically and reading all the new stuff about them.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Subscribe to Anole Annals!

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 620 other subscribers

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén