When I first moved to South Carolina from the mountains of Virginia , I had to adjust to a whole new set of plant and beast in my semi - tropic yard and garden . Some of the first wight that capture my care were a group of small , burnished - green lizards that frequented my hedges , landscape gardening and the exterior rampart of my home . A naturalist friend quick identified these lizards as immature anoles ( Anolis carolinensis ) , a coinage of lounge lizard sometimes called the American Chamaeleon .
In the United States , green anole dwell a range that extends across the Southeast from abject Virginia south to Florida and west to the easterly third of Texas . While several enter species of anole lizards can be found in Florida , the green anoles are the only one aboriginal to the continental U.S. For gardeners living in their southeasterly cooking stove ( not in craggy zones ) , it ’s a helpful garden familiar , eat a dieting rich in insects and spiders .
Adult unripe American chameleon are slender , 5- to 8 - column inch - farsighted lizards with a narrow head and a rather incisive rostrum . While it might sound big , the legal age of its length is found in its long underweight tail . male are big than the females of the species and have a typical pink or reddish elastic fan of skin beneath the neck make out as a dewlap . Males offer their dewlap as part of unconstipated behavioural ritual , both as a display of territoriality and to pull in females for union .
The rough-cut name , American chamaeleon , was belike render to green anole because they have the ability to change color , but unlike unfeigned chameleons , the green anole can only shift between green , brown and grey shades . The lizard usually appear green , but their organic structure semblance shifts with temperature , humidity and their mood . Their green and dark-brown colouration defecate them perfectly camouflaged in the botany that forms their natural habitat .
Like geckos , green American chameleon have adhesive pad on their metrical unit that let them to do some middling dramatic climb while hunt for dinner or defending their territory . They ’re active during the 24-hour interval and target moving prey , including spiders , flies , crickets , grasshoppers , cockroaches , slugs and a range of small beetle species . While these stunning lizards place good and pest species indiscriminately , they ’re an essential part of the native intellectual nourishment range in the Southeast and should be permit or encouraged around the curtilage .
If you live outdoors of green anole territorial dominion , there are plenty of aboriginal lizards species spread across the United States that are also look at good species in and around the garden . We ’ll babble out more about other garden - well-disposed lizard in the near future .
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