' ' U\ ^ r I <_) T I y~i ^CJ B R E V I R A Mii^^^^^^ip^^^lQ^^iiiparatiYe Zoology LIBRARY us ISSN 0006-9698 CAMBRiDAftRNfi^^.19749 March 1974 Number 422 '^Ag^ffith AMERICAN A NOUS: +t¥ftge^NJE\V SPECIES RELATED TO ANOLIS NIGROLINEATUS AND A. DISSIMILIS Ernest E. Williams Abstract. Three new Anolis species are described from widely scattered localities in Colombia and Venezuela. Together with Anolis nigrolineatus and Anolis dissimilis they appear to represent a natural subgroup of the punctatus group of South American alpha anoles. The lizard fauna of South America is poorly understood but more than that it is little known. It is, for example, very prob-able that there are many lizard species to be discovered in the continent's remoter and more obscure areas. The three new anoles here described are cases in point: they are from areas quite remote or obscure -— one from a small river valley in Santander and the poorly known states of Tachira and Trujillo in Venezuela, another from a camp in remote Caqueta in Colombia, and still another from a mission in the delta at the mouth of the Orinoco. More interesting, however, than the existence of new species in little explored areas is the close resemblance of these newly discovered, perhaps isolated anoles to species occurring at very great distances from them. The most extreme instance is the similarity of the anole from the mouth of the Orinoco to a form from Madre de Dios Province in Peru. However, the distances between the other forms that must be compared are relatively small only in the context of the immensity of South America. Even in South America it is quite unusual to be compelled to describe related species from such small samples as are available for the three new forms (one, one and five), especially when these are spread over so wide an area with no series available for any locality. This may point to a special difficulty pecuUar to small arboreal species. The fauna of open formations is usu-
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