Professor of Biology and Director of the Living Earth Collaborative at Washington University in Saint Louis. I've spent my entire professional career studying anoles and have discovered that the more I learn about anoles, the more I realize I don't know.
Skip,
Same here, never seen an anole taken by a spider. I have, although had a Sphaerodactylus ladae stolen from me by a tarantula:
I flushed the spahero out from under a dead agave and it ran under a small rock. When I flipped the rock the sphaero was lying on its back, which confused me initially until I saw that a tarantula had one of its fangs embedded in the sphaero’s abdomen. I still collected the gecko, hoping it would still be a useful as a specimen, but by the time I got to our preservative (about 30 mins) its internal organs had all but liquified.
Pat Shipman
Oh whew! For a moment I thought there were spiders eating anoles. The vision was disturbing. Great photo!
Anthony Geneva
Pat,
I hate to break it to you but it does happen.
Janson
Murdering arachnid thugs.
Ramon E. Martínez-Grimaldo
I’ve seen several Mexicans Anolis eating spiders
Skip (James) Lazell
I’ve seen tarantulas eating sphaeros but not yet an anole. But anoles LOVE to eat spiders.
Anthony Geneva
Skip,
Same here, never seen an anole taken by a spider. I have, although had a Sphaerodactylus ladae stolen from me by a tarantula:
I flushed the spahero out from under a dead agave and it ran under a small rock. When I flipped the rock the sphaero was lying on its back, which confused me initially until I saw that a tarantula had one of its fangs embedded in the sphaero’s abdomen. I still collected the gecko, hoping it would still be a useful as a specimen, but by the time I got to our preservative (about 30 mins) its internal organs had all but liquified.