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Squamata · AnolidaeEntry 1,495 of 21,572
Border Anole, Anolis limifrons

Reptilia · Squamata

Anolis limifronsCope, 1863

Border 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 placed in the public domain, CC0, via iNaturalist

A day-active, meat-eating lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 51 mm snout to vent.

Also called Slender Anole.

Once published as Anolis biscutiger, Anolis rodriguezi, Norops limifrons — those names reach this page.

Reptilia › Squamata › Anolidae › Anolis

Grows to
51mm
greatest recorded
Eats
Carnivorous
Active
Diurnal
Lives up to
1years
Body length across Anolidae

Longer than only 20% of all species in Anolidae anyone has measured.

20% of 423 species are smaller80% larger
33.5 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest191 mm

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

44 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
2012
Population trend
Stable

as reported by the IUCN Red List

The animal itself

Limbs
Four legs
Venomous
No
Fangs
None
Longest recorded life
1years

less than 5% of females reach 1 year (Andrews 1979), less than a year (Henderson 2010), few live more than a year (Leenders 2019)

Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
28.55°C83 °F

mean body temperature of active individuals in nature

Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
26.1–31°C79–88 °F

body temperature of active animals in nature

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
51mm2 in

max 51 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)

Length snout to vent · adult female mean
41.8mm1.75 in
Largest female · snout to vent
41.8mm1.75 in

snout-vent length; the source column mixes this with straight carapace length

Hatchling length · snout to vent
15.45mm0.6 in
Largest juvenile · snout to vent
15.5mm0.6 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed
2.82g0.1 oz

computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed

Body mass at hatchingmeasured
0.15g0.01 oz

How it lives

Diet
Carnivorous

Arthropods, "mites, beetles, katydids, flies, and caterpillars." (Henderson 2010), invertebrates (Leenders 2019)

How it hunts
Sit and wait

(e.g., Cooper et al. 2013) / spends the day searching for prey (Leenders 2019)

Active
Diurnal

(e.g., Pianka et al. 2017), prefers shade (Henderson 2010)

Where it lives
Arboreal, terrestrial

Arboreal and Terrestrial (e.g., Henderson 2010, Leenders 2019), "This species exhibits mostly arboreal habitat use in the understory" (Perez-Martinez et al. 2021)

Habitat
Forest
Biome
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Active season · months of the year
12months
Region
Neotropic
Mainland or island
Mainland
Highest it lives · above sea level
1350m

near sea level -1350 (e.g., Leenders 2019)

Range size
208,940km²
Density
3–1980per hectare
Home range · largest recorded
30.5m2

Breeding

Reproduction
Oviparous
Average clutch
1.5eggs
Eggs or young per clutch
1–2eggs

means 1-1.1 (Mesquita et al. 2016)

Mean clutch
1–2eggs
Clutches in a year
21per year
Clutches a year
2–40per year
First breeds at
2–8months

Naming and history

Suborder
Sauria
Infraorder
Pleurodonta
Subspecies
No
Described by
Cope
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
No
Described in
1863
Type locality
Panama

Keeping one

8 in × 8 in × 8 in(20 × 20 × 20 cm)

Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.

The standard sizes ground species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 and climbing species at 4 × 2.5 × 4 times snout-vent length.

Recorded both on the ground and climbing, so this is the larger of the two rules in every dimension.

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 in (51 mm), at 4 × 4 × 4 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.

Active animals measured in the wild averaged 83 °F (28.6 °C).

Mean body temperature of active individuals measured in nature. 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.

0kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 3 g, the heaviest recorded for Border 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.

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
  • — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
  • — Eats arthropods
  • — Eats vertebrates
  • — Eats plant matter
  • — How the young develop
  • — Gestation or incubation
  • — 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
  • — Sex decided by
  • — Red List criteria
  • — 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 limifrons. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/anolis-limifrons

@misc{anolis_limifrons_2026,
  title  = {Anolis limifrons},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/anolis-limifrons}
}

Sources

  1. Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
  2. Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
  3. Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.
  4. Moura, M. R. et al. TetrapodTraits: a database of 33,281 tetrapod species. Used under CC BY 4.0. Observed values only; this encyclopedia does not publish its imputed predictions.