Anolis alutaceus, Cope, 1861

Nicholson, Kirsten E., Crother, Brian I., Guyer, Craig & Savage, Jay M., 2012, 3477, Zootaxa 3477, pp. 1-108 : 35-36

Anolis alutaceus Species Group

Diagnosis. — Support for this group is provided by 81 apomorphies including eight morphological and 73 molecular ones. There are six unequivocal morphological apomorphies: maximum male snout-to-vent length decreased (1: f to a); size of ear opening increased (6: m to q); tail length about 2.5 or more times snout-to-vent length (8: s to v); five or more enlarged rows of middorsal scales (13: a to z); modal number of supraciliary scales two (38: 1 to 2); and scales in supraorbital disc vary continuously in size and are bordered medially by an unbroken row of small scales (41: 0 to 1). There are 40 unequivocal molecular apomorphies (see Appendix II).

Definition. — Lizards of this species group are very small to small, gracile anoles (maximum snout-to-vent length in adult males 33 to 49 and 31 to 45 mm in adult females) sharing the following combination of characters: 1) no transparent scales in lower eyelid; 2) interparietal scale small, about same size as adjacent scales; 3) head narrow, length much longer than width; 4) legs long and slender; 5) tail long, about 2.5 to 2.7 times snout-to-vent length; 6) dewlap absent in females; 7) five or six lumbar vertebrae; 8) usually seven or more aseptate vertebrae anterior to first autotomic caudal vertebrae, rarely six.

Content. — This species group contains 14 species and a total of 15 species and subspecies (see Appendix III).

Distribution. — Cuba and its satellite islands ( Fig. 20).

Remarks. — In the Poe (2004) tree, members of this group form the sister group to Chamaelinorops barbouri . In our molecular and combined trees they fall out well within the Anolis clade, and are referred to that genus.