Anolis lucius, C. Dumeril and Bibron, 1837

Nicholson, Kirsten E., Crother, Brian I., Guyer, Craig & Savage, Jay M., 2012, 3477, Zootaxa 3477, pp. 1-108 : 34-35

Anolis lucius S pecies Group

Diagnosis. — Support for this group is provided by 91 apomorphies including 16 morphological and 75 molecular ones. There are nine unequivocal morphological apomorphies: maximum male snout-to-vent length increased (1: f to g); ratio of maximum female snout-to-vent length to maximum male snout-to-vent length increased (2: h to d); scales on dewlap with at least one double row, (21: a to z); transparent scales in lower eyelid (25: a to z); mean number of postmental scales increased (30: m to s); supraorbital semicircles in contact (32: a to z); anteriormost aspect of rostral scale usually even with lower jaw (36: a to g); dorsal, ventral, supradigital, and head scales smooth (40: 0 to 1); and quadrate lateral shelf usually absent (75: a to g). There are 33 unequivocal molecular apomorphies (see Appendix II).

Definition. — The two species placed in this species group are moderate-sized lizards (maximum size of adult males to 66 mm in snout-to-vent length and adult females to 44 mm) that share the following combination of features: 1) two or three transparent scales in lower eyelid; 2) interparietal scale large, several times larger than adjacent scales; 3) head narrow, length much longer than width; 4) arms and legs long; 5) tail long, about 2.5 times snout-to-vent length; 6) no dewlap in females; 7) four lumbar vertebrae; 8) five aseptate caudal vertebrae anterior to first autotomic vertebra.

Content. — Two species are referred to this species group (Appendix III).

Distribution. — Cuba ( Fig. 19).

Remarks. — The two species forming the lucius group appear at different places on three phylogenetic trees. In Poe (2004) they are sister to a clade consisting of Xiphosurus chamaeleonides and Deiroptyx darlingtoni . In our molecular tree they are sister to all Xiphosurus . In our combined tree they are sister to all Anolis (sensu stricto). Morphologically, the two taxa in this group appear to be most closely related to Anolis (sensu stricto) particularly in having a T-shaped interclavicle and lacking the many unique morphological features of the X. chamaeleonides group. Members of that group and all other species of Xiphosurus most importantly differ from A. argenteolus and A. lucius in having arrow-shaped interclavicles. One solution to this non-concordant situation would be to recognize a separate genus for these two species, for which the name Gekkoanolis Varona, 1985 is available. We eschew that alternative awaiting further study. Only the two species comprising this group, among all dactyloids, have semitransparent scales in the lower eyelid, which separates them most obviously from Deiroptyx darlingtoni .