Author: Jonathan Losos Page 68 of 133

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.

How To Pronounce “Anole”

By Jonathan Losos

On September 17, 2013

In All Posts

Ever wondered what the most viewed post on Anole Annals is? I bet it keeps many of you up late at night trying to guess. So, I’ll tell you. Over the last year, the single most viewed page is the one entitled “The Proper Pronunciation of ‘Anole’.” In that post, an AA reader asked how to pronounce our favorite noun, and many readers responded.

But that was more than two years ago, and languages evolve swiftly. Moreover, many have joined AA’s readership since then. So, I’ll throw out the question again. For what it’s worth, here are my thoughts, as expressed Lizards in an Evolutionary Tree (p.10):

“…honorable, right-thinking people can disagree over whether the correct pronunciation is uh-nole or an-ole. I am less charitably inclined to my ninth grade biology teacher’s uh-no-lee, but, although I have never heard “anole” articulated in that way by anyone else, I am told that it is common in the South, from whence she came (I was surprised to find that this is the preferred pronunciation of the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, according to www.dictionary.com).

As for the origin of the name, Daudin [1802], who named the genus, said that “anolis” was the name the indigenous Caribs used for these lizards. However, there is some possibility that in fact “anolis” may have been their name for lizards in the genus Ameiva and that the correct Carib word was “oulléouma” (see discussion in Breuil, 2002). Right or wrong, Daudin clearly chose the more mellifluous name to bestow upon these lizards! A more interesting, though doubtless less accurate, explanation is the Saba Tourist Bureau’s statement (www.sabatourism.com) that “The scientific name of ‘Anolis’ comes from the popular name of “anole” for these lizards. Anole is an ancient African name, meaning “little devil”, that is given to small lizards in western Africa.”

Lowland Anolis Gundlachi

By Jonathan Losos

On September 16, 2013

In Anole Photographs

Anolis gundlachi. Photo by Alejandro Sanchez.

Father Sanchez has done it again! Here’s his commentary accompanying this lovely photo: “… today I was at the Guajataca State Forest. The lowland forms of Anolis gundlachi (one of my favorite anolines) are quite smaller – and frequently paler – than those of the highlands. Incipient speciation? One can only hope.”

As for the occurrence of the cool-loving A. gundlachi in lowlands, see the discussion of this stemming from the recent symposium on the effect of global warming on ectotherms.

Anole Wedding Cake

By Jonathan Losos

On September 14, 2013

In Anole Art, Literature, and Humor

Alex Gunderson may have had the best wedding ever! He and Katie tied the knot on June 1st at the Palm House in Tower Grove Park in Saint Louis. Alex adds that Katie “studies the evolution of anole perches (plants) or, more specifically, anole beds (she specializes in leaf shape evolution).”

Parasitism By Moth Flies On Anolis Lionotus

By Jonathan Losos

On September 10, 2013

In Natural History Observations

AA reader Angel Sosa sends the attached photo and writes: ‘During monitoring of amphibians and reptiles in Cerro Azul region of Alto Chagres, Panama, I photographed three moth flies on the back of Anolis lionotus. The moth flies had bellies full of blood, which is clearly seen in the photograph. It’s the first time I have seen this group of arthropods feeding on a reptile. This is an endemic area of leishmaniasis, but little is known of the ecology of parasites in reptiles and their medical importance.”

Anolis Sagrei In The Mexican Interior

By Jonathan Losos

On September 7, 2013

In Introduced Anoles

A view of our hotel from the parking lot, right in front of the spot where the brown anole was lounging.

On our recent trip to Mexico, we had been warned that brown anoles were spreading beyond the coast, and sure enough, we found ’em. The photo above is a female A. sagrei we spotted in the parking lot of our point five-star hotel located in downtown Chinantla, Veracruz, Mexico. The photo ain’t pretty, but the ID is unmistakeable: them’s Cuban emigres, doing just fine in the Mexican heartland.

We actually found brown anoles at two spots in Chinantla. The other was a small, bright green pained shack near the intersection of the highway and the main road through town. A bunch of female and juveniles brown anoles were running up and down the walls of the shack, easily seen from the side of the road. You can’t miss it, not only due to its bright color, but also because of the transit police standing in front, randomly waving over cars–especially those driven by oddly-attired biologists–and then finding problems with their registration or what-not. In fact, you’ll have plenty of time to watch the anoles as the officers explain at great length why they will have to impound the car, even though it is a rental and you are five hours from Veracruz, where your flight leaves the next morning, because the car’s tax certificate for 2013 is not plastered to the back window. You’ll probably be distracted by your colleague on her cell-phone berating the rental car office, but stay focused, even when–finally–the police officers realize (as the rental car people predicted) that it is possible to pay the registration tax, on the spot, in cash, and without being given a receipt. Any way, that’s where to look for brown anoles in Chinantla.

Hertz Rent-a-Car won’t make that mistake again!

The Anole Community Of Los Tuxtlas, Mexico

By Jonathan Losos

On September 5, 2013

In Natural History Observations

Anolis barkeri. Photo by J. Losos

As part of its ongoing studies of Central and South American anoles, Team Mainland—fresh off successful field work in Colombia and Venezuela earlier this year, traveled to the Veracruz, Mexico to sample that state’s anole fauna. Joined by Anne-Claire Fabre, Victor Jiménez, and Ramón Martínez, Team Mainland worked at the fabled Estación de Biología Tropical Los Tuxtlas, home to eight or nine (depending on which paper you read) species of anoles. The goal of the trip was to characterize the ecology, behavior, and morphology of the species residing at the station. Although all anoles are interesting in their own right, as we know, not all anoles are created equal. And, indeed, there was one special species we had our heart set on seeing: the large aquatic anole, Anolis barkeri.

Anolis barkeri. Photo by J. Losos

Anolis barkeri. Photo by Victor Jimenez.

And lo and behold, we saw them! Aided by Bob Powell’s advice to visit his old field site, a lovely stream located several kilometers from the station, we spent several days observing the antics of these gorgeous anoles, the largest of the mainland aquatics. And by antics, I mean primarily sitting around doing nothing, though they did flash their gorgeous red dewlaps occasionally (alas, not caught by camera, but several times on video—stay tuned once they get processed). Actually, they were sometimes quite active, running rapidly from one place to another. Like other mainland aquatics, these guys hang out right next to streams, and when threatened will sometimes jump in. They don’t go swimming away, though, at least not in our observations (which agree with others); rather, they immediately go to the nearest water-land interface and hang out, hoping they have not been detected.

Our trip occurred in early August, at the end of both the reproductive and dry seasons. We were told that it had been a particularly dry dry season, which may explain some of the observations. For example, A lemurins is supposed to be very common, but we didn’t see a one. Also, males of two other common species, A. sericeus and A. rodriguezi, were few and far between. This was surprising, but perhaps these—like many mainland species—are primarily annual, that is, with a lifespan averaging less than a year. Perhaps the males, spent by their exertion, are all dead, explaining why we saw so few of them. That was a classic hypothesis borne of field observations, but the Malice of Nature did not intervene to refute it. A number of people suggested that A. barkeri is only found in shaded streams; in the open, it is pushed out by basilisks. “Find a basilisk,” we were told, “and you won’t find A. barkeri.” For the record, we did find several small basilisks along the stream, though only in open, sunny spots in the otherwise well-shaded watercourse. The A. barkeri were found on logs and rocks, always near the water. They didn’t impress me as brilliant swimmers, but could immediately climb onto rocks—very good graspers, with long arms and sharp claws.

I was particularly curious to learn more about A. sericeus.

Potted Plants And Invasive Lizards: A Case Study

By Jonathan Losos

On September 4, 2013

In Introduced Anoles

Could a lizard stowaway on a succulent?

We hear a lot about invasive anoles–A. sagrei and others–showing up all over the place: Singapore, Taiwan, you name it. But how do they get there? I was recently reminded of an article by Gad Perry and colleagues in the journal Iguana (now Reptiles and Amphibians: Conservation and Natural History–a quarterly journal available online and worth a look). Perry et al. examined a barge delivering a large number of potted plants to the small island of Guana in the British Virgin Islands. The plants came initially from Florida, but had been sitting in a nursery on a nearby island for at least ten days. What would they contain?

To find out, the investigators laboriously inspected the plants, all 220+ of them, one by one. And sure enough, there were stowaways: six juvenile Puerto Rican crested anoles (A. cristatellus); a dwarf gecko, Sphaerodactylus macrolepis; also, an immature spider, three snails and nests of the red fire ant. In addition, the barge carrying the cargo contained two other lizards, Ameiva exsul.

And remember, this is one just one shipment. Now, in this case, all of the lizards were natives, as were most of the invertebrates. But imagine all of the plants being shipped out from Florida, containing brown anoles, Cuban treefrogs, and who knows what else? My prediction: it’s just a matter of time before brown anoles are everywhere in the urban tropical world.

Evidence From VD That Small Territorial Males May Be Successfully Mating

By Jonathan Losos

On September 2, 2013

In New Research

The parasite in question. Photo from an Anole Annals post by Gerrut Norval.

Recently, Bryan Falk wrote an interesting report on how nematode parasites are passed from one anole to another by sexual contact. He summarized a fascinating paper by Langford et al. in the Journal of Parasitology that convincingly demonstrated this phenomenon. In reading that paper, I found one idea they suggested in the Discussion to be particularly intriguing. I’ll let them describe it:

“Our finding that C. penneri” (the nematode parasite) “is transmitted by copulation has some interesting implications for the host’s reproductive and behavioral biology. Anolis sagrei reproduces in a female-defense polygyny, wherein large males (e.g., SVL = 50 mm) establish and maintain territories containing multiple, relatively small females (Schoener and Schoener, 1980). In Anolis mating systems, young males are generally thought to have little mating success because they are excluded from females by large territorial males (Losos, 2009). In contrast, our parasitological results suggest that small male lizards are copulating with mature females and becoming infected with a sexually transmitted parasite. Thus, our results provide some support for the female mimicry hypothesis (Orrell and Jenssen, 2003) and/or the ‘‘dear enemy’’ phenomenon (Paterson, 2002) in anoles. This insight into A. sagrei reproduction should encourage anologists to reconsider the role of covert and satellite males in anole mating systems where C. penneri infects small male lizards. In conclusion, the major contribution of our study is the establishment of copulation as the route of transmission for C. penneri between lizards and the discovery of both ecological and physiological host specificity in these worms.This study also provides insight into the host’s biology, specifically support for the female mimicry hypothesis in anoles proposed by Orrell and Jenssen (2003).”

I queried Gabriel Langford, “just how small are these infected males?” He responded: “We sampled an evenly distributed group of females and males that ranged from a few days old to large (male SVL 68mm) adults. If memory serves (I’m on my tablet, no data in front of me), at least 35 of the 87 males fell into the range of 34-50 mm. Also, we had several males just above (infected) and below (uninfected) the 34 mm cut-off, which allowed us to be fairly confident about this number in A. sagrei.”

These results suggest that even quite small males may be mating, even though they are far too small to hold a territory. The idea that “sneaker” males may exist in anole populations has been suggested before, but not demonstrated. The occurrence of such matings has all kinds of interesting implications for anole sexual selection and evolution.

Rapid Color Change In Anoles

By Jonathan Losos

On September 1, 2013

In Natural History Observations

Anolis gundlachi. Photo by Alejandro Sanchez.

Anolis gundlachi 10 seconds later. Photo by Alejandro Sanchez.

West Indian photographer and natural historian extraordinaire Father Alejandro Sanchez sent in these photos, commenting “I took these two pics less than 10 seconds apart from each other – the time it took for me to modify the flash’s settings. Yet the lizard noticeably changed color patters in such a short time, surely for being scared by my proximity. Anolis gundlachi is one of my favorites.”

And note those blue eyes!

Anole Sculpture

By Jonathan Losos

On August 31, 2013

In Anole Art, Literature, and Humor

On our recent field trip to Mexico, we were joined by AA contributor Ramon E. Martinez-Grimaldo. Ramon kindly gave me this lovely sculpture of Anolis sagrei. It’s the nicest anole sculpture I’ve ever seen! It’s made of resin and the artist is Luis Ivan Huerta. Check out his website; in the section “dermoplastias,” he put a picture of the anole’s sculpture. Perhaps Luis will see this post and tell us whether it’s possible to order other anole creations!