Named "Zandoli" in the French West Indies, Anolis roquet originated in Martinique even though it was introduced on many other Caribbean islands where it quickly flourished. With the gecko of houses ( Hemidactylus mabouia ), it is the most common lizard on the island, frequently found in gardens and houses. 

The genus Anolis is very large, with nearly 380 species (according to the reptile database). The maintenance of such a vast genus is nevertheless debated, some species previously affiliated to this genus have been reclassified into other genus as the genus Chamaeleolis or Norops . The Anolis are members of the Dactyloid family. The Anolis are Iguanians and close relatives of the Iguanidae, a family in which they were included for a long time before it erupted in the late 1980s. The Anolis genus was recently revised and split, and A. roquet was placed in The genus Dactyloa , but this classification proposed by Nicholson et al. (2012), was reversed some time later by Poe (2013). In 2012, I wrote an article for Reptil'mag on this species. Sent under Anolis pug , the editor contacted me and told me that the name had changed because the article by Nicholson et al. Had just come out ... I adapt and modify the names of genre ... but now that at press time, so too late to recover anything, Poe's article appears, challenging Dactyloa pug and revalidating Anolis pug ... Morality: always wait and not take a study for cash as soon as it is published! 

The anoles are widespread from the southeastern United States to the center of South America with wide diversity throughout the Caribbean: Mahorta & Thorpe (1999) contains more than 150 species, most of which live only On an island or group of nearby islands. The Lesser Antilles form a chain of islands in the shape of an arc of a circle situated in the southeast of the Caribbean Sea. They are small volcanic islands that began to emerge from the Atlantic Ocean 23 million years ago. The two French departments, Guadeloupe and Martinique, form part of it. 

Anolis roquet was first described by Lacépède in 1788, but he did not use the binomial nomenclature * of Linné, the original valid description is to be credited to Pierre Joseph Bonnaterre the following year under Lacerta roquet . This name of "pug", according to Lacépède, would have been given by travelers observing this lizard which when it is too hot opens the mouth and seems to gasp like a dog ... a pug! On reading Lacépède's description of the "pug", there seems to be confusion with other species of lizards, notably Leiocephalus herminieri , a species now extinct. 
 

A. roquet gave its name to a group of species from the south of the Lesser Antilles, among which are A. luciae (Saint Lucia), A griseus (St. Vincent), A. Extremus (Barbados) ... These species are very close to each other and constitute a wave of colonization in a north-south route from the islands off Venezuela To Martinique. Anolis marmoratus , living in Guadeloupe, is part of the group A. bimaculatus which left the north of the Caribbean arc and descended to the south to Dominica, the island that lies between Martinique and Guadeloupe. The canal between Martinique and Dominica marks the boundary between these two groups. 

A complex species:

Historically, A. pug is endemic to Martinique, But it was introduced by Man on many other islands. Flower pots, and therefore the trade in amenity or agricultural plants, are very likely the means of dissemination of the species because they tend to lay their eggs there (Breuil, 2004). However, considering the small size and abundance of this lizard, the involuntary transport of adult specimens by other means is quite possible. 

On the island of Martinique alone, there are 6 subspecies described by Lazell in 1972 on the basis of morphological and color differences, however, these distinctions are not unanimous among herpetologists. Each subspecies a specific territory, also showing patterns or a typical coloration in relation to the habitat and the climatic conditions that prevail there. The differences are quite significant and when traveling across the island, you really think you are dealing with several distinct species. 

List of subspecies according to Lazell (1972):