Sunday, April 3, 2016

Trinidad Anole, Anolis trinitatis (Family Dactyloidae)

Anolis trinitatis Reinhardt & Lütken 1862: 269.
Anolis vincenti Garman 1887: 46.
Anolis trinitatis trinitatis — Underwood In Williams et al. 1959: 212.
Anolis trinitatis vincentii — Underwood In Williams et al. 1959: 213.
Anolis trinitatis — Schwartz & Henderson 1991: 349.


Holotype: ZMUC (UZM) R.37145. Type locality: “Trinidad”. Revised to “Kingstown, St. Vincent” by Lazell 1972.

Distribution: Anolis trinitatis inhabits the Lesser Antilles (St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Chateaubelair Island) and it has been introduced to Trinidad (Lazell 1972). May be present in Venezuela’s Peninsula de Paria (Donoso-Barros 1968).

Anolis trinitatis hybridizes with Anolis aeneus on Trinidad (Lazell 1972). However, hybrids show greatly reduced reproductive fitness (Gorman et al. 1971). Males, which reach 74 mm snout-to-vent, are green to green-blue, with blue stippling on the head and anterior trunk. They have yellow coloring on the throat and ventral surface, and the area around the eye is dark. Males have a large dewlap that extends into the abdominal region. Females are duller and have a smaller dewlap.

Synonymy: Boulenger (1885) listed Anolis trinitatis (and Anolis aeneus) as synonyms of Anolis alligator, which is now A. roquet.


Karyotype: Gorman et al. (1968) reported Anolis trinitatis and Anolis aeneus have 36 and 34 chromosomes, respectively. Hybrids have 35 chromosomes.

Literature
Donoso-Barros, R. 1968. The lizards of Venezuela (checklist and key). Carib. J. Sci. 8 (3-4): 105-122

Gorman GC. 1969. The zoogeography of Lesser Antillean Anolis lizards; an analysis based upon chromosomes and lactic dehydrogenases. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard 138 (3): 53-80.

Gorman GC, Atkins L. 1968. Natural hybridization between two sibling species of Anolis lizards: Chromosome cytology. Science 159 (March): 1358-1360

Gorman G, Licht P, Desshauser HC, Boos JO 1971. Reproductive failure among the hybridizing Anolis lizards of Trinidad. Syst. Zool. 20: 1–18

Lazell JD. 1972. The anoles (Sauria: Iguanidae) of the lesser Antilles. Bull. Mus. comp. Zool. Harvard 143 (1): 1-115

Poe S. 2004. Phylogeny of anoles. Herpetological Monographs 18: 37-89

Poe S. 2013. 1986 Redux: New genera of anoles (Squamata: Dactyloidae) are unwarranted. Zootaxa 3626 (2): 295–299

Reinhardt J, Lütken CH 1862. Bidrag tii det vestindiske Öriges og navnligen tii de dansk-vestindiske Oers Herpetologie. Vidensk. Meddel. Naturhist. For. Kjöbenhavn (10-18): 153-291 [1862]

Schwartz A, Henderson RW. 1991. Amphibians and Reptiles of the West Indies. University of Florida Press, Gainesville, 720 pp.

Williams EE, Quesnel VC, Kenny JS, Underwood G. 1959. The anoles of the Eastern Caribbean (Sauria, Iguanidae) Part. I. Preface; Part II. Two sibling species of anoles in Trinidad; Part. III. Revisionary notes. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard 121 (5): 185-226 + 1 plate

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