In a recent post, we discussed the description of two new Costa Rican anoles, but didn’t draw attention to the fact that all members of the A. pachypus species complex exhibit dewlap dichromatism, with the dewlaps of males and females differing within a species. Shown here are differences in A. tropidolepis (top) and A. pachypus (bottom). The images on the right are females and the left and center are males.
In a previous post, we discussed this phenomenon, but its explanation still escapes us. Interestingly, it occurs almost exclusively in mainland anoles.
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.
Latest posts by Jonathan Losos (see all)
Peter Mudde
I’d like to add A. biporcatus to the list..
Kirsten Nicholson
In only about 22 Caribbean species of anoles do females have dewlaps, and of those, around 11 have dewlap morphologies different from the males of their species. All Caribbean female species with substantial dewlaps (=as big as males) seem to be highly arboreal (not on the ground or lower trunks), but not sure why that would be…
Veronika Holanova
Sounds interesting! I am curious about those 11 Caribbean species in which females differ in dewlaps from males. Can you give me some examples please? Thank you!