Anolis oculatus, the Dominica anole, Dominican anole, eyed anole or zandoli, is a species of anole lizard. It is endemic to the Caribbean island of Dominica, where it is found in most environments. The species is found in a diverse range of color forms, which one herpetologist once classified as four subspecies, which most other scientists did not recognise because the forms gradually inter-grade with one another. Two later researchers have instead promoted the "ecotypes" concept, hypothesizing the color forms are maintained by the ecological conditions of the surrounding environment, despite being genetically indistinguishable. The morphology of some traits is subject to clinal variation, gradually changing from one side of the island to the other, or from sea level to the hilltops. The ground color ranges from pale tan or yellow to deep green or brown. It also has patterned markings that range from light-colored speckling to complex marbled patterns, and some populations also have large black-ringed "eye" spots on their flanks.
The Dominican anole spends much of the time in trees but mainly hunts on the ground. Small insects make up the bulk of its prey, with soft-bodied invertebrates and small vertebrates hunted less frequently. Long-living and late maturing for anoles, the Dominican anole can usually breed from around two to three months of age. Females lay eggs, and breeding can occur at any time of year. Clutches number one or rarely two eggs and are laid under rocks or leaves on the ground. Although presently widespread and common on Dominica, in 2007 some authors opined that it may face competition from A. cristatellus, an anole from Puerto Rico, which was introduced a few years earlier.
History and taxonomy
The Dominican anole is locally known as the zandoli, or tree lizard. The indigenous Island Caribs considered its presence in their home to be a sign of "good spirits" according to Honychurch.
According to Malhotra and Thorpe the American paleontologist and herpetologist Edward Drinker Cope gave a cursory description of Anolis alliaceus in 1864, which now seen as a synonym of the species A. marmoratus from another island, on the basis of sixteen specimens at the British Museum that lacked locality data. He later separately described Xiphosurus oculatus in 1879, from thirteen specimens in the U.S. National Museum (now the Smithsonian); the name oculatus (Latin, "eyed") refers to its distinctive lateral spots. The two taxa were synonymised in 1888 by the German-British zoologist Albert Günther.
Because of the variation in colour there was some question as to whether the Dominican anole comprised multiple species or only one. The American herpetologist James D. Lazell, Jr. attempted to explain this variation in a 1962 publication. In 1959 he had travelled on foot or on horseback throughout the island, collecting over 500 specimens from thirty localities on Dominica. From this, he concluded that it was a single species, and accounted for its variation by classifying the spectrum of different color forms as four subspecies organised by region: A. o. oculatus, found along the southwestern coastal area, with a holotype from the capital of Roseau (most closely corresponding to the original type described by Cope); A. o. cabritensis, along the northwest coast, with a holotype from the Cabrits peninsula (now Cabrits National Park); A. o. montanus, in central, high elevation rain forest, with a holotype from Fresh Water Lake; and A. o. winstoni, along the northeast coast, with a holotype from the village of Woodford Hill. These first descriptions applied only to males, however, and omitted certain morphological features such as scale variation. Lazell returned to Dominica in 1966 to collect new specimens, and in 1972 supplemented his original descriptions, including color illustrations of sexual dimorphism among the types.