All except one of the approx. 64 species of Anolis lizards found in Cuba are endemic to the island. The exception is the ubiquitous Anolis sagrei Cuban Brown Anole though a couple of other species have also been introduced into other locations. The lack of a complete Field Guide to the Anolis of Cuba does a huge disservice to our knowledge and understanding of this group. The last publication which attempted it was back in 1999 by Rodríguez Schettino, Lourdes with publication of The Iguanid Lizards of Cuba by the University Press of Florida. It was good start but very incomplete and there were no photos of live specimens but just one artists illustration per species covered.
In 2013 the Smithsonian Herpetological Information Service published the Reptiles of Cuba:
Checklist and Geographic Distributions by Lourdes Rodríguez Schettino, Carlos A. Mancina & Vilma Rivalta González. It has detailed distribution maps and localities for all the Cuban reptiles and is a great piece of work but its not a Field Guide. It is available as a downloadable pdf which is the best way for Cubans since the purchase cost of a hardback copy is prohibitive to most. The distribution map for Anolis loysiana Spiny Anole shows that it is widespread and I've taken the liberty of copying it below.
In 2013 the Smithsonian Herpetological Information Service published the Reptiles of Cuba:
Checklist and Geographic Distributions by Lourdes Rodríguez Schettino, Carlos A. Mancina & Vilma Rivalta González. It has detailed distribution maps and localities for all the Cuban reptiles and is a great piece of work but its not a Field Guide. It is available as a downloadable pdf which is the best way for Cubans since the purchase cost of a hardback copy is prohibitive to most. The distribution map for Anolis loysiana Spiny Anole shows that it is widespread and I've taken the liberty of copying it below.
It is odd therefore that there are no photos of this species on the internet - that I can find anyway. Until very recently that is. In August of this year Alexis Callejas Segura who lives at Santiago de Cuba posted some pictures on iNaturalist and just recently on one of the Facebook groups.
Anolis loysiana 4 Aug 2020 Santiago de Cuba © Alexis Callejas Segura (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Perhaps this is due to the fact that although people have taken pictures of them they haven't been able to identify them so do not put the pictures in the public domain. What I do know is that there are several species (pumilus/centralis/litoralis) that look very similar, and at this stage I, and I suspect most other people, don't know what the subtle differences are.
I've said it before but I'll say it again that I think the way forward has to be to publish what is known as an open source pdf and then as more knowledge is gained the pdf can be revised and reissued. But in the mean time the dissemination of knowledge and the stimulation of interest would be huge. A big thank you to Alexis as although the pictures are fairly low res it is a great start, not to mention a first.
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