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Anolis porcatus GRAY, 1840

IUCN Red List - Anolis porcatus - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaAnolidae, Iguania, Sauria, Squamata (lizards)
SubspeciesAnolis porcatus aracelyae PEREZ-BEATO 1996
Anolis porcatus porcatus GRAY 1840 
Common NamesE: Cuban Green Anole 
SynonymAnolis porcatus GRAY 1840: 112
Anolis carolinensis porcatus — GRAY 1845: 201
Anolis principalis porcatus — COPE 1887: 437
Anolis porcatus — BARBOUR 1904: 57
Anolis carolinensis porcatus — SCHWARTZ & OGREN 1956
Anolis porcatus — SCHWARTZ & HENDERSON 1991: 317
Anolis porcatus — RODRÍGUEZ SCHETTINO 1999: 207
Anolis porcatus — NICHOLSON et al. 2005
Anolis porcatus — NICHOLSON et al. 2012
Anolis porcatus — NICHOLSON et al. 2018

Anolis porcatus aracelyae PEREZ-BEATO 1996
Anolis porcatus aracelyae — FLASCHENDRÄGER 2002
Anolis porcatus aracelyae — NICHOLSON et al. 2012
Anolis porcatus aracelyae — NICHOLSON et al. 2018 
DistributionUSA (introduced to Florida),
Cuba, Isla de la Juventud, Hispaniola: Dominican Republic (Santo Domingo)

aracelyae: Cuba; Type locality: town of Santa Damiana, 3.5 km NE of San Juan y Martínez municipality, Pinar del Río Province

Type locality: Cuba.

Introduced to Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain (M. Lopez-Darias, Anole Annals July 20, 2016) and Brazil (São Paulo) (Prates et al. 2016), and Aruba (Behm et al. 2022)  
Reproductionoviparous.<br /><br />Hybridization: Anolis porcatus appears to hybridize with A. carolinensis in Florida (T. Hagey, Anole Annals 2016). 
TypesSyntypes: BMNH 1946.8.12.7, BMNH 1946.8.12.66-.70; first-listed syntype from "Texas."
Holotype: MNHNCu 1445 [aracelyae] 
DiagnosisUnfortunately we had to temporarily remove additional information as this was scraped by multiple AI companies who sell that data to their customers. These details, e.g. detailed descriptions or comparisons (about 1316 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentTorres et al. (2025) split off the eastern population of A. porcatus as a new species, A. torresfundorai, because it was paraphyletic with other species. However, it is morphologically and ecologically very similar (see A. torresfundorai for diagnoses etc.).

Similar species: A. torresfundora, A. carolinensis, A. smaragdinus.

Distribution: Western Cuban populations of A. porcatus are actually A. carolinensis (Wegener et al, 2019). Eastern Cuban populations remain A. porcatus but are actually more closely related to A. allisoni than A. carolinensis.

For illustrations see Ruibal and Williams, 1961; Vogel, 1965; Peters and Schubert, 1968.

Synonymy: Listed as synonym of A. carolinensis by BOULENGER 1885. A. porcatus and A. carolinensis are morphologically indistinguishable. See also Wegener et al. 2019, Mayer & Lazell 2021, and Torres et al. (2025) for further discussion.

Species group: Anolis carolinensis species group (fide NICHOLSON et al. 2012). 
EtymologyNamed after Latin porcatus, from Latin porca, the ridge between two furrows. (Esteban Lavilla, pers. comm., April 2024)

A. p. aracelyae was named after Aracely, the wife of Pérez-Beato. 
References
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