THE CUBAN LIZARDS OF THE AN O LIS HOMOLECHIS COMPLEX ALBERT SCHWARTZ DepL of Biology, Miami-Dade Junior College. Miami. Florida 33167 Abstract The homolechis complex of Cuban ano-line lizards consists of seven species: A. quadriocellifer, A. homolechis, A. mestrei, A. allogus, A. ahli, A. ruhriharhus, and A. imias. Of these species, homolechis and allogus are island-wide, mestrei is restricted to the western provinces of Pinar del Rio and Habana, alhi to Las Villas Province, ruhriharhus and imias to Oriente Pro\ince, and quadriocellifer to the Peninsula de Guanahacabibes in extreme western Pinar del Rio Province. Although previously con-sidered as a subspecies of A. homolechis, A. quadriocellifer clearly is specifically dis-tinct from A. homolechis and merits spe-cific status. Analysis of the variation in vari-ous scutellar characters of homolechis, as well as information on dewlap color, allows for the recognition of five subspecies of A. homolechis, of which the nominate sub-species with a white to gray dewlap is widely distributed throughout Cuba and the Lsla de Pinos. The remaining sub-species, herein proposed, all with yellow to orange dewlaps, occupy regions more or less peripheral to the main body of A. h. homolechis. The status of extreme eastern Oriente popidations, as well as those at Banes in Oriente, is left undecided; in both these areas, white and yellow dewlapped lizards occur sympatrically but accurate data for individual specimens is lacking. The apparent sympatry of white and yel-low dewlapped A. homolechis without in-tergradation on the northern Camagiiey coast is discussed in detail. Variation in A. allogus, as well as the rela-tionships of this species with the nominal species A. ahli and A. ruhriharhus, l:)oth of which are apparently allopatric to A. allo-gus, is given in detail. There is evidence for the intergradation of allogus and ruhri-harhus in northern Oriente, but this evi-dence is equivocal and material is lacking from critical areas. The recognition of ahli as a species distinct from allogus rests prin-cipally on philosophical grounds, since these two "species" differ in few meristic characters. Although no subspecies of A. allogus liave lieen designated, it seems likely that additional material will ulti-mately show that this species also has a number of distinctive populations along the length of Cuba. Anolis imias remains known from only a pair of specimens; the type localit\' ( "Imias" ) has been changed, since data from the collector indicate that these liz-ards were not taken on the xeric southern Oriente coast ( where further search has not revealed them ) but rather from the mountains north of Imias. There is no ques-tion that imias is a distinctive species, which combines the characteristics of A. homolechis and A. allogus; A. imias ap-pears to be sympatric with A. allogus and not with A. homolechis. Anolis mestrei is limited to the pro\'ince of Pinar del Rio ( except for an occurrence in Ha]:)ana Province near the Pinar del Rio border). This \'ery distinctive species oc-curs sympatrically with both A. homo-lechis and A. allogus. The Cuban anoles of the Anolis homo-lechis complex have been discussed in detail by Ruibal and Williams ( 1961 ) . The com-plex, as defined by them, is composed of A. homolechis Cope, A. mestrei Barbour and Ramsden, A. allogus Barbour and Ramsden, A. ahli Barbour, A. ruhriharhus Barbour and Ramsden, and A. imias Ruibal and Williams. In a later paper, Ruibal ( 1964) included the above species in a homolechis-sagrei group along with A. ophiolepis Cope and A. sagrei Dumeril and Bibron. This group is defined (Ruibal, 1964:478) by having the tail laterally compressed, ventrals not in transverse rows, head scales keeled, supra-orbital semicircles usually not in contact, body scales small, head short-snouted, and no green color phase. Additionally the ventral scales are either keeled or smooth; although most of the species here discussed have these scales sm(X)th, occasional individuals of nor-mally smooth scaled species have the ventrals keeled. Only a single trinomial is now in use, A. h. quadriocellifer Barbour and Ramsden, for the population on the Peninsula de Guanahacabibes. The present paper is based on collections now in the American Museum of Natural Editorial Committee for this Paper: HOBART M. Smith, Professor of Zoology, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois Dr. Garth Underwood, Department of Botany and Zoology, Sir John Cass College, London, England 140
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