Category: Natural History Observations Page 11 of 34

According to Williams and Rivero, the name occultus was chosen for the anole they described in 1965 because it means “hidden,” referring to the unexpected finding of a new species in such a well-trodden spot (“The discovery of so distinct a species in an island thought to be well known herpetologically and in which the anoles have received special  attention must give us pause.”). But to the unknowledgeable, “occultus” sounds more mysterious, more preternatural, befitting such a spectral, gnome-like species that is so rarely seen and so little known.

On a recent trip to western Puerto Rico, I was fortunate to visit a locality where they can be found readily at night. In a short evening, we found five clinging to the ends of twigs (as well as a dozen green giants). Naively, I thought that I’d come back during the day and locate some to see where they live when they’re active, and what they do. Ha! Much, much easier said than done. How do you find a little, camouflaged gray match-stick of a lizard in the dense vegetational matrix that is a tropical forest? The answer: you don’t, and I didn’t.

I’m thirsty! Photo by J. Losos. For more on drinking occultus, check out Manuel Leal’s recent post on Chipojolab.

Indeed, there are almost no data on the natural history of this species, except where it sleeps. The little that we do know suggests that they are just what they look like–twig anoles. Some of the few that have been found have been on twigs, though a surprising several have been on leaves or ferns. They seem to creep slowly, though no one has published a good behavioral description.

Photo by J. Losos

Since the description of this species in 1965, there has only been one paper written on the diurnal natural history of this species, published by Preston Webster in 1969–44 years ago (go ahead, read it yourself)! Someone needs to go out and find these guys and see what they do! How to do it? Go find them at night and come back before dawn and watch them as they wake up and get out of bed. And here’s a bonus–George Gorman published a paper suggesting they sleep in pairs–that’s right, pair-bonding twig anoles!

Note that these photos were taken of animals captured and placed on twigs, as was the lizard which subsequently started drinking raindrops discussed on Chipojolab.

And here’s one acting like a real twig anole. Photo by J. Losos.

Anolis stratulus

Anolis evermanni

Anolis gundlachi

Ok, this post has nothing to do with Frank Sinatra other than his nickname. But what about blue eyes in anoles? They seem to pop up all over anole phylogeny. For example, in my recent trip to Puerto Rico, three anoles had cerulean peepers–A. evermanni and A. stratulus, which are closely related, and A. gundlachi, which is more phylogenetically distant. And blue eyes occur in other anoles, such as A. etheridgei from Hispaniola.

The observation raises two questions:

1) Just how phylogenetically widespread is the occurrence of blue eyes in anoles? I know I’ve noted blue-eyedness from time to time, but I haven’t get tracked and can’t remember in which species. I propose the Anole Annals community take it upon itself to compile a list of blue-eyed anoles. If you know of one, please post a comment and, even better, add a photo.

2) Why? I can’t believe there is an adaptive significance to having blue eyes per se. Is it genetically linked to some other adaptive trait? Could sexual selection have a role (though I don’t know of sexual dichromatism in eye color)? Other animals exhibit interspecific variation in eye color and I bet there’s a literature trying to explain it, but I’m not familiar with it. Would make an interesting project!

Some quick googling reminded me of a few other examples, below. Who am I missing? And does anyone have a good photo of blue-eyed etheridgei?

Anolis transversalis

Anolis peraccae

Anolis oculatus

The geographic variation of the highly variable anole Anolis marmoratus from the Archipel de la Guadeloupe (France) has focused interest on the process of speciation resulting from divergent selective pressures. Nice detailed analyses such as that recently published in Molecular Ecology confirmed that differences in body color seem to correlate with environmental characteristics. Within the large diversity of form and color of anoles of the different islands of the archipelago, one phenotypic feature that appears to be variable is the color of the scales around the eye.
For two years, the team FORCE (UMR 7205 Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle/CNRS, Paris, France) in collaboration with La Direction des collections of the Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle (Paris, France) has been conducting different studies of the behaviors and forms of the anoles of the different islands of the archipelago. The contrasted orange color of the scales around the eye of males Anolis desiradei is remarkable and could probably play a role within the context of behavioral ecology of these anoles. At La désirade, these anoles are living in the same habitat as the endangered Iguana delicatissima. We also recorded some populations of males of Anolis marmoratus on the Basse-Terre with marked black scales around the eyes. In Marie-Galante, the scales around the eye are blue, green or yellow while the head is more often blue or green. The scales around the eye of females of all of the studied populations are often white or pale yellow.

We are now measuring the diversity of this phenotypic trait to test various hypotheses of the role of these colors in the communication between the individuals within the selected populations of Anolis from different islands.

Photo by Veronika Hříbalová

Here’s something you don’t see every day. These are Cuban twig anoles, Anolis angusticeps, in the care of Veronika Hříbalová (whose book on anoles we’ve touted previously). They’re enjoying their weekly treat of creamy mashed-up fruit baby food. Veronika says they normally feed on small insects, but if they have chance to get to sweets, they don’t hesitate.

We’ve talked about frugivory in anoles before [1, 2, 3]–it’s known in many Caribbean species, but not, as far as I’m aware, A. angusticeps or other twig anoles.

New guy on bottom. Photos by Karen Cusick.

Daffodil’s Photo Blog reported a follow-up on Monday’s sagrei smackdown. Round 2 went on for at least 40 minutes yesterday–vicious, wide-ranging, and at times comical–and the young dude got his comeuppance! Serves him right.

Gardening glove takes a beating.

Photos by Karen Cusick

Over at Daffodil’s Photo Blog, Karen Cusick  reports on an intense battle between two brown anoles. Where did this new champion come from? And  how will he be stopped?

The king is dead (or at least chased off). Long live the king!

Photo by Frank Burbrink

Ophidiologist extraordinaire Frank Burbrink posted a photo of this Costa Rican anole on Facebook, challenging several of us to identify it. The consensus is that it’s A. lionotus or perhaps A. poecilopus. Any thoughts? More importantly, Frank of snake phylogenetics fame (including a paper on Caribbean serpents), had this to say:

“I really like these streamside anoles. Ecologically and morphologically they seem so un-Anolis like. There were tons of these guys along the wet rocks also inhabited by plethodontids nearby. I would love to see an Anole Annals post about these the very wet streamside anoles.”

So, here one is! He goes on:

“First off…they seemed unusually wet and cold. Second they were everywhere. Third they seemed to be able to hold onto the face of very slippery large rocks (boulders)…some right next to the waterfalls. I am not sure how they actually got there…unless they swam and crawled up the face of the rock. That seems like it wouldn’t take much effort to observe how they do it. Anyhow, everything about them was very non-anole like—other than the huge dewlap, body and head shape.”

Photo by Frank Burbrink

“They seem to exist in a niche not filled by other lizards …certainly not even the semi-aquatic gymnothalmids. It makes you wonder from what ancestral ecomorph they invaded this particular niche…which again seems so un-Anolis” like.

Editor’s note: we’ll be hearing soon about the talks in the upcoming herp meetings, one of which is on aquatic anoles. More on that soon.

A twofer. Photo by Frank Burbrink