Reptilia · Squamata
Anolis distichusCope, 1861
Bark anole
Identification not confirmed. One observer recorded this animal as this species and no one has since agreed, so the photograph may show a different animal.
Photograph by Kristof Zyskowski, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A tree-dwelling, day-active, meat-eating lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 58 mm snout to vent.
Also called Hispaniolan gracile anole, North Caribbean Bark Anole.
Once published as Anolis ocior, Ctenonotus distichus — those names reach this page.
Reptilia › Squamata › Anolidae › Anolis
- Grows to
- 58.4mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives
- Arboreal
Longer than only 39% of all species in Anolidae anyone has measured.
The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because body length here runs from 33.5 to 191 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.
What is known
42 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.
Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.
Standing in the world
- Still living
- Extant
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- 2015
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
- 31°C
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 28.95°C84 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 26.4–31.5°C80–89 °F
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 58.4mm2.25 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 43.4mm1.75 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 43.4mm1.75 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 19mm0.7 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 19mm0.7 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 4.2g0.15 oz
max 58.4 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)
snout-vent length; the source column mixes this with straight carapace length
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Mixed
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Arboreal
- Habitat
- Forest
- Biome
- Mangroves
- Region
- Neotropic
- Mainland or island
- Found only on islands
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 1200m
- Range size
- 8963km²
- Density
- 90–9700per hectare
- Home range · largest recorded
- 30.7m2
insects and fruit (Herrel et al. 2004) / almost entirely arthropods (Cast et al. 2000, Sifers et al. 2001), ants and other arthropods, hatchling anoles (Fitch 1989)
Active foraging (Banfi et al. 2023)/sit and wait (Cavalcanti et al. 2023)
e.g., Antley et al. 2016
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Sex decided by
- Genes, XX/XY
- Average clutch
- 1eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 1eggs
- Mean clutch
- 1eggs
- Clutches a year
- 16per year
- First breeds at
- 9months
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Pleurodonta
- Subspecies
- Anolis distichus distichus COPE 1861 Anolis distichus biminiensis OLIVER 1948 Anolis distichus dapsilis SCHWARTZ 1968 Anolis distichus distichoides ROSÉN 1911 Anolis distichus floridanus SMITH & MCCAULEY 1948 Anolis distichus juliae COCHRAN 1934 Anolis distichus ocior SCHWARTZ 1968 Anolis distichus patruelis SCHWARTZ 1968 Anolis distichus sejunctus SCHWARTZ 1968 Anolis distichus suppar SCHWARTZ 1968 Anolis distichus tostus SCHWARTZ 1968
- Described by
- Cope
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 1861
- Type locality
- Bahamas
Keeping one
9.25 in × 5.75 in × 9.25 in(23 × 15 × 23 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes climbing species at 4 × 2.5 × 4 times snout-vent length.
Lives in vegetation, so height and climbing structure matter more than floor space.
Mindestanforderungen an die Haltung von Reptilien (Sachverständigengutachten), German Federal Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry, Animal Welfare Division, 10 January 1997. The standard states these floor areas are recommendations rather than binding limits.
From this animal’s own snout-vent length of 2.25 in (58.4 mm), at 4 × 2.5 × 4 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
In a laboratory thermal gradient this species settled at 88 °F (31 °C).
Preferred body temperature, recorded in a laboratory gradient where the animal could choose freely. A measurement of the animal, not a setting for a thermostat.
Feeding
A prey item should be no wider than the space between the animal's eyes.
Widely used across reptile husbandry references. The stated reason is that the gap approximates the width of the throat, so wider prey is associated with impaction. This is established practice, not a measurement.
1kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 4 g, the heaviest recorded for Bark anole — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.
An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.
Morphs
1 with peer-reviewed genetics behind them, 0 resting on breeder consensus. Most references present both with the same confidence.
- Skin colourpeer reviewed
Behere et al. (2024) studied dewlap colouring in the Hispaniolan bark anole (Anolis distichus) and reported that the phenotype in their study population was best "explained as a simple Mendelian trait, with the solid yellow morph being dominant over the blush orange."
- The genetic architecture of dewlap pattern in Hispaniola anoles (Anolis distichus). — Evolution 2024
What nobody knows
These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.
- — Length snout to vent · adult male mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult mean
- — Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- — Female length · mean, nose to tail
- — Length nose to tail · adult male mean
- — Length nose to tail · adult mean
- — Largest male · snout to vent
- — Largest female · shell length
- — Largest male · shell length
- — Hatchling length · nose to tail
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · a typical adult
- — Body mass · adult female, mean
- — Body mass at hatching
- — Longest recorded life
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — Clutches in a year
- — Hatchling length · smallest recorded
- — Hatchling length · largest recorded
- — Age at first breeding · female
- — Mature from · youngest recorded
- — Mature by · oldest recorded
- — Size at maturity · smallest recorded
- — Size at maturity · largest recorded
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — Pupil
- — Red List criteria
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Active in
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
Others in Anolidae
Take this data
Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.
This species as JSON · the whole dataset
Cite this page
The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Anolis distichus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/anolis-distichus
@misc{anolis_distichus_2026,
title = {Anolis distichus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/anolis-distichus}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.