By Mary Reid Barrow

Photos by Terri Gorman

 

Out of the blue, at least two little green lizards showed up in a potted plant on a condo deck on Atlantic Avenue.

 

Terri Gorman, LRNow’s Pearl Home coordinator, was surprised, to say the least, when she discovered the new residents on her deck.

 

“They were in my pot of switch grass and then sunbathing on the fence!” Terri said.

 

Terri thinks there may be another smaller lizard in the mix too. The critters were very cooperative for her camera, she said.

 

Known as green anoles, or chameleons, these harmless little lizards were, sad to say, more well known in the past as game prizes at the state fair or for sale in terrariums at the local pet store.

 

Several years ago, a few green anoles were seen in southern Virginia Beach and now they are being reported in many areas of the city, as well as in Franklin, according to the Virginia Herpetological Society.

 

This summer, Mike Coughlin in Alanton found two of the critters one in his garden and another in a neighbor’s garden.

 

The lizards are probably making their way north because of our warming climate. They may even have gotten an initial foothold when pet store and state fair critters escaped or were released.

 

Green anoles were never far away from Virginia. Their Latin name, “Anolis carolinensis,” means Carolina lizard.

The got their other name “chameleon,” because of their ability to turn from green to brown depending on air temperature and other stimulation. The male’s throat also puffs up and turns red in mating season.

 

Anoles grow from 5 to 9 inches long, a lot of which is their tail! Reptile books all describe their “wedge-shaped head” which to me, looks just a little too big for their tiny bodies.

 

Females lay only one egg at a time usually in a shallow depression in the topsoil. At least one of Terri’s anoles has probably been laying eggs in the switchgrass pot since it is about the soil available on the deck.

 

No telling how busy the critters have been this summer. Maybe there are more little lizards hanging out in that switchgrass than she knows.