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Anolis unilobatus KÖHLER & VESELY, 2010

IUCN Red List - Anolis unilobatus - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaAnolidae, Iguania, Sauria, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Blue-spotted Fan Anole 
SynonymAnolis unilobatus KÖHLER & VESELY 2010
Anolis sallaei — BOULENGER 1885 (part)
Anolis ustus — BOULENGER 1885 (part)
Anolis sallaei — BARBOUR & LOVERIDGE 1929
Anolis sallaei — DUNN 1932
Anolis sericeus — STUART 1935
Anolis ustus ustus — STUART 1935 (part.)
Anolis sericeus — HARTWEG & OLIVER 1940
Anolis sericeus — STUART 1948
Anolis sericeus — SMITH & TAYLOR 1950 (part)
Anolis sericeus sericeus — STUART 1955 (part)
Anolis sallaei wellbornae — SMITH & KERSTER 1955
Anolis sericeus — STUART 1963 (part)
Anolis sericeus — CAMPBELL & HOWELL 1965
Anolis sericeus sericeus — DUELLMAN 1963
Norops sericeus — KÖHLER 1999, 2001
Norops sericeus — MCCRANIE et al. 2006
Norops unilobatus — NICHOLSON et al. 2012
Anolis unilobatus — KÖHLER et al. 2014: 190
Norops unilobatus — MCCRANIE & KÖHLER 2015: 189
Norops unilobatus — MCCRANIE 2015
Norops unilobatus — NICHOLSON et al. 2018
Anolis unilobatus — HEIMES 2022 
DistributionCosta Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico (Oaxaca, Chiapas); elevation 0-1200 m

Type locality: Awasbila, a village along Río Coco, 14° 47’ N,
84° 45’ W, 60 m elevation, Departamento Gracias a Dios, Honduras  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesHolotype: SMF 87133, an adult male 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: A small species (SVL in largest male 48.5 mm, largest female 48.5 mm) of the genus Anolis (sensu Poe 2004) that differs from all Mexican and Central American anoles except A. sericeus and A. wellbornae by the following combination of characters: (1) male dewlap yellowish orange with large blue to purple blotch (Fig. 159); (2) short legged (longest toe of adpressed hind limb reaching to a point between shoulder and ear opening, rarely beyond ear opening); (3) ear opening very small (less than 1⁄4 the size of interparietal plate); (4) anterior superciliary conspicuously large and elongate; (5) ventral scales strongly keeled and mucronate; (6) males without a pair of enlarged postcloacal scales. Anolis unilobatus differs from A. sericeus and A. wellbornae by having a unilobate hemipenis (bilobate in A. sericeus and A. wellbornae). Furthermore, A. unilobatus can be distinguished from A. sericeus in dewlap size (A. unilobatus: male dewlap larger than 100 mm2, no female dewlap; A. sericeus: male dewlap smaller than 50 mm2, females with a dewlap of about the size of the male dewlap) (KÖHLER et al. 2014: 190).
 
CommentSynonym and references after KÖHLER & VESELY 2010.

Species group: Norops auratus Species Group (fide Nicholson et al. 2012) 
EtymologyNamed after the Latin words unus (one) and lobus (lobe) and is used as an adjective; it refers to the unilobate hemipenis in this species which sets it apart from A. sericeus and A. wellbornae with which it has been confused in the past. 
References
  • Aguilar-López JL, Luría-Manzano R, Pineda E, Canseco-Márquez L 2021. Selva Zoque, Mexico: an important Mesoamerican tropical region for reptile species diversity and conservation. ZooKeys 1054: 127-153 - get paper here
  • Badillo-Saldaña, Luis M, Aaron García-Rosales, and Aurelio Ramírez-Bautista. 2022. Influence of Microhabitat Use on Morphology Traits of Three Species of the Anolis Sericeus Complex (Squamata: Dactyloidae) in Mexico. Zoology 152: 126003 - get paper here
  • Dunn, Emmett Reid & Emlen, John T. 1932. Reptiles and amphibians from Honduras. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 84 : 21-32 - get paper here
  • Griffin, R.K., Lewis, T.R., Tzanopoulos, J. et al. 2025. Natural history traits influence winners and losers for herpetological communities in disturbed tropical habitats. Oecologia 207, 52 (2025) - get paper here
  • Hedges SB, Powell R, Henderson RW, Hanson S, and Murphy JC 2019. Definition of the Caribbean Islands biogeographic region, with checklist and recommendations for standardized common names of amphibians and reptiles. Caribbean Herpetology 67: 1–53
  • Heimes, P. 2022. LIZARDS OF MEXICO - Part 1 Iguanian lizards. Edition Chimaira, Frankfurt Am Main, 448 pp. - get paper here
  • Hernández-Vázquez, M E 2018. Anolis unilobatus Surface tension. Herpetological Review 49 (3): 535 - get paper here
  • Johnson, Jerry D.; Vicente Mata-Silva, Elí García Padilla, and Larry David Wilson 2015. The Herpetofauna of Chiapas, Mexico: composition, distribution, and conservation. Mesoamerican Herpetology 2 (3): 272–329. - get paper here
  • KÖHLER, GUNTHER 2014. Characters of external morphology used in Anolis taxonomy—Definition of terms, advice on usage, and illustrated examples. Zootaxa 3774 (2): 201–257 - get paper here
  • Köhler, Gunther and Milan Vesely 2010. A REVISION OF THE ANOLIS SERICEUS COMPLEX WITH THE RESURRECTION OF A. WELLBORNAE AND THE DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES (SQUAMATA: POLYCHROTIDAE). Herpetologica 66 (2): 207-228 - get paper here
  • KÖHLER, GUNTHER; RAÚL GÓMEZ TREJO PÉREZ, CLAUS BO P. PETERSEN & FAUSTO R. MÉNDEZ DE LA CRUZ 2014. A revision of the Mexican Anolis (Reptilia, Squamata, Dactyloidae) from the Pacific versant west of the Isthmus de Tehuantepec in the states of Oaxaca, Guerrero, and Puebla, with the description of six new species. Zootaxa 3862 (1): 001–210 - get paper here
  • Laking AE, Solís JM, Brown T, Maddock ST, Burdekin O, Taylor P, Lonsdale G, Green SEW, Martin TE, Galdamez JR, Kolby JE, Erens J, Jocque M 2024. The amphibians and reptiles of Cusuco National Park, Northwest Honduras: updates from a long-term conservation programme. In: Lipińska M, Lopez-Selva MM, Sierra JM (Eds) Biodiversity research in Central America. Neotropical Biology and Conservation 19(2): 37-62 - get paper here
  • Martínez-Fonseca JG, Holmes IA, Sunyer J, Westeen EP, Grundler MR, Cerda PA, Fernández-Mena MA, Loza-Molina JC, Monagan IV Jr., Nondorf D, Pandelis GG, Rabosky ARD 2023. A collection and analysis of amphibians and reptiles from Nicaragua with new country and departmental records. Check List 20(1): 58-125 - get paper here
  • Mata-Silva, Vicente, Jerry D. Johnson, Larry David Wilson and Elí García-Padilla. 2015. The herpetofauna of Oaxaca, Mexico: composition, physiographic distribution, and conservation status. Mesoamerican Herpetology 2 (1): 6–62 - get paper here
  • McCranie, James R. 2015. A checklist of the amphibians and reptiles of Honduras, with additions, comments on taxonomy, some recent taxonomic decisions, and areas of further studies needed. Zootaxa 3931 (3): 352–386 - get paper here
  • McCranie, James R. 2018. The Lizards, Crocodiles, and Turtles of Honduras. Systematics, Distribution, and Conservation. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Special Publication Series (2): 1- 666 - get paper here
  • McCranie, James R. and Gunther Köhler 2015. The Anoles (Reptilia: Squamata: Dactyloidae: Anolis: Norops) of Honduras. Systematics, Distribution, and Conservation. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard (Special Publication Series, No. 1): 1-280 [review in Q. J. Biol. 91: 227] - get paper here
  • Muñoz-Alonso, Luis Antonio; Jorge Nieblas-Camacho,<br />Marina Alba Chau-Cortez, Alondra Berenice González-Navarro, Jaime López-Pérez & Juan Pérez-López 2017. Diversidad de anfibios y reptiles en la Reservade la Biosfera Selva El Ocote: su vulnerabilidad ante la fragmentación y el cambio climático. In: Lorena Ruiz-Montoya et al. (eds), Vulnerabilidad social y biológica ante el cambio climático en la Reserva de la Biosfera Selva El Ocote. El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, pp.395-448 - get paper here
  • NICHOLSON, KIRSTEN E.; BRIAN I. CROTHER, CRAIG GUYER & JAY M. SAVAGE 2012. It is time for a new classification of anoles (Squamata: Dactyloidae). Zootaxa 3477: 1–108 - get paper here
  • NICHOLSON, KIRSTEN E.; BRIAN I. CROTHER, CRAIG GUYER & JAY M. SAVAGE 2018. Translating a clade based classification into one that is valid under the international code of zoological nomenclature: the case of the lizards of the family Dactyloidae (Order Squamata). Zootaxa 4461 (4): 573–586 - get paper here
  • Percino-Daniel, Ruth; Erika Cruz-Ocaña, Wilber Pozo-Ventura y Ernesto Velázquez-Velázquez 2013. Diversidad de reptiles en dos microcuencas del río Grijalva, Chiapas, México. Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad 84: 938-948 - get paper here
  • Poe, S. 2013. 1986 Redux: New genera of anoles (Squamata: Dactyloidae) are unwarranted. Zootaxa 3626 (2): 295–299 - get paper here
  • Poe, Steven 2025. A Guide to the Anolis Lizards (Anoles) of Mainland Central and South America. Princeton University Press, 432 pp. - get paper here
  • Sasa, M., Arias, E., & Chaves, G. 2025. Annotated list of amphibians and reptiles of Costa Rica: The role of the Museum of Zoology in cataloging the country’s herpetological diversity. Revista de Biología Tropical, 73(S2): e64536-e64536 - get paper here
  • Solís, J. M., L. D. Wilson, and J. H. Townsend. 2014. An updated list of the amphibians and reptiles of Honduras, with comments on their nomenclature. Mesoamerican Herpetology 1: 123–144 - get paper here
  • Sunyer, J., K.E. Nicholson, J.G. Phillips, J.A.Gubler, and L.A. Obando 2013. Lizards (Reptilia: Squamata) of the Corn Islands, Caribbean Nicaragua. Check List 9: 1383–1390 - get paper here
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