Speckled Anole, Anolis aeneus (Gray)

Tobago, JCM

Anolis aeneus Gray, 1840: 114. Type locality: none given. Lazell (1972) restricted it to Pointe Saline, St. George Parrish, Grenada.

Anolius alligator: Court, 1858:440.

Anolis alligator: Boulenger, 1885 2:31.

Anolis roquet ameus: Underwood, 1959:209.

Dactyloa aenea: Schwartz and Henderson, 1988:124.

Distribution. Anolis aeneus is endemic to Grenada and the Grenadines, its populations in Trinidad and Tobago (as well as Guyana) are introduced.

Males reach a body length of 77 mm, females are smaller reaching about 55 mm. Coloration is usually gray, olive, or chocolate-brown, mottling or speckles. Note that it has a bluish eye which will distinguish it from most other Anolis on Trinidad and Tobago.

Natural History. Anolis aeneus uses a wide range of habitats including open areas (Hailey et al., 2009), with substrates of mainly bushes and walls (White & Hailey, 2006) and it is usually seen in urban areas in Trinidad and Tobago. However we have found it in disturbed secondary forests on Tobago.

Gray, J. E. 1840. Catalogue of the species of reptiles collected in Cuba by W. S. MacLeay, esq.; with some notes on their habits extracted from his MS. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (1) 5: 108-115.

John, RR., Hedman HD, Powell R. 2012. Anolis aeneus. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (892): 1-11.

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

Malhotra, A. & Thorpe, R.S. 1999. Reptiles & Amphibians of the Eastern Caribbean. MacMillan, London & Oxford

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

Simmons, P. M., B. T. Greene, K. E. Williamson, R. Powell and J. S. J. Parmerlee 2005. Ecological interactions within a lizard community on Grenada. Herpetologica 61 (2): 124-134.

Williams, E.E. Quesnel, VC. Kenny, J S.; 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.