occurs (regularly, as a native taxon) in multiple nations

United States

Origin: Exotic

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Present

Confidence: Confident

Type of Residency: Year-round

Global Range: Virtually ubiquitous in Puerto Rico and many offshore islands, but absent or ecologically restricted at high elevations; also present on islas Culebra, Culebrita, and Vieques, Puerto Rico; occurs throughout Virgin Islands and satellites. Introduced in Key Biscayne and other localities in Miami area, Florida, and in Republica Dominicana and Costa Rica. Subspecies WILEYI: islands east of Puerto Rico; U.S. and British Virgin Islands. Subspecies CRISTATELLUS: Puerto Rico, including some offshore islands; Republica Dominicana and southeastern Florida (Schwartz and Henderson 1988, Mayer and Lazell 1988, Schwartz and Henderson 1991).

Continent: Middle-America Caribbean North-America
Distribution: Puerto Rico (including many offshore islands), Isla Vieques, Isla Culebra,  Isla Culebrita, Virgin Islands, Isla de Cabras, Punta Salinas Island, Cayo Ratones (near Jobos, Puerto Rico), Skipper Cay (south of Key Point, Peter Island, British Virgin Islands, e.g. Anegada); Dominica (THORPE, cited in POWELL & HENDERSON 2004). Hispaniola: Dominican Republic (introduced),  USA (Florida, introduced) Mexico (Yucatan), Costa Rica  Anolis cristatellus cristatellus: Puerto Rico, including some off-shore islands; introduced in República Dominicana and southeast Florida.
Type locality: see comment.  Anolis cristatellus wileyae Grant, 1931 (HOLOTYPE: MCZ 34792): islands east of Puerto Rico; US. and British Virgin Is. Isla Mona - Puerto Rico - Isla Vieques - Isla Culebra.

Length: 21 cm

Comments: Mesophilic to semi-xerophilic (Schwartz and Henderson 1991). Open forest, open fields, roadsides, deforested areas; most habitats except deep forest. Sunny tree trunks, shrubs, fence posts, walls, ground. Adult males tend to perch in trees more than do juveniles and small females. Eggs are laid in leaf litter, in debris at base of banana plants, and under logs, rocks, or loose bark (Behler and King 1979, Rand 1967, Schmidt 1928).

Non-Migrant: Yes. At least some populations of this species do not make significant seasonal migrations. Juvenile dispersal is not considered a migration.

Locally Migrant: No. No populations of this species make local extended movements (generally less than 200 km) at particular times of the year (e.g., to breeding or wintering grounds, to hibernation sites).

Locally Migrant: No. No populations of this species make annual migrations of over 200 km.

Comments: Eats insects, spiders, snails, small lizards, and fruit (Behler and King 1979, Wolcott 1924). Readily accepts live insect bait (Licht 1974).

Competes with and dominates A. COOKI in sw. Puerto Rico (Jenssen et al. 1984, Marcellini et al. 1985). See Schwartz and Henderson 1991 for brief account of ecological relations among introduced CRISTATELLUS and native Anolis in Republica Dominicana.

Comments: In certain circumstances may forage around lights at night (Schwartz and Henderson 1991).

Throughout year in Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands, high % of adult females gravid (in some areas egg production declines in winter) (Gorman and Licht 1974). Lays 2-3 eggs. See Licht and Gorman (1975) for male reproductive cycle in Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands. Several females may lay eggs under one log.

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: NNA - Not Applicable

Rounded Global Status Rank: G5 - Secure

Comments: This species was included in the genus Ctenonotus by Guyer and Savage (1986) and Schwartz and Henderson (1988). Guyer and Savage (1986) divided the long-standing genus Anolis into multiple genera based on a reanalysis of some published data sets. Schwartz and Henderson (1988) adopted this classification, but Williams (1989) found serious errors and confusions in the reanalysis and vigorously rejected the multi-genus classification, as did Cannatella and de Queiroz (1989). Subsequently, Schwartz and Henderson (1991) reverted to the one-genus classification. Guyer and Savage (1992) presented further justification for their multi-genus classification. Brandley and de Queiroz (2004) recognized this species as Anolis cristatellus.

Jackman et al. (1999) examined mtDNA variation and concluded that Phenacosaurus, Chamaelinorops, and Chamaeleolis are all nested within Anolis therefore all should be synonymized with Anolis .

See Burnell and Hedges (1990) for electrophoretic analysis of relationships of West Indian Anolis.

See Heatwole (1976) for information on geographic variation in A. cristatellus.

See Brandley and de Queiroz (2004) for a phylogenetic, ecomorphological, and historical biogeographic analysis of A. cristatellus and its relatives.