''Anolis wattsii'', commonly known as Watts's anole or the Antigua Bank bush anole, is a species of

anole Dactyloidae are a family of lizards commonly known as anoles () and native to warmer parts of the Americas, ranging from southeastern United States to Paraguay. Instead of treating it as a family, some authorities prefer to treat it as a subfami ...

, a lizard in the family Dactyloidae. The species is native to islands in the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

Lesser Antilles.

Geographic range

''Anolis wattsii'' is native to

Antigua Antigua ( ), also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the native population, is an island in the Lesser Antilles. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region and the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua and Bar ...

, and has also been introduced to

Saint Lucia Saint Lucia ( acf, Sent Lisi, french: Sainte-Lucie) is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean. The island was previously called Iouanalao and later Hewanorra, names given by the native Arawaks and Caribs, two Amerindian ...

Taxonomy

Anolis pogus ''Anolis pogus'', the St. Martin anole or Anguilla Bank bush anole, is a species of anole lizard that is extant to the Caribbean island of Saint Martin, located in the Lesser Antilles. Its range used to include Anguilla, but it is now extirpa ...

'' was formerly described as a

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

of ''A. wattsii''. The taxonomy of two further subspecies, sometimes described as '' A. schwartzi'' and '' A. forresti'', is unclear. At a minimum, the three taxa are very closely related, and similar in appearance, ecology, and behavior. ''A. w. schwartzi'' is found on

Sint Eustatius Sint Eustatius (, ), also known locally as Statia (), is an island in the Caribbean. It is a special municipality (officially " public body") of the Netherlands. The island lies in the northern Leeward Islands portion of the West Indies, so ...

, Saint Kitts, and Nevis. ''A. w. forresti'' is endemic to Barbuda.

Etymology

The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

, ''wattsii'', is in honor of

Dr. Sir Francis Watts Doctor is an academic title that originates from the Latin word of the same spelling and meaning. The word is originally an agentive noun of the Latin verb 'to teach'. It has been used as an academic title in Europe since the 13th century, w ...

who became the Commissioner of Agriculture for the West Indies.

References

Sources

*Malhotra, Anita; Thorpe, Roger S. (1999). ''Reptiles and Amphibians of the Eastern Caribbean''. London: Macmillan Education Ltd. . (pp. 67, 68, 71).

External links