The Curaçao Whiptail (Cnemidophorus murinus) (Squamata: Teiidae) was once considered to have two subspecies, C. m. murinus (endemic to Curaçao and Klein-Curaçao) and C. m. ruthveni (endemic to Bonaire and Klein-Bonaire), but the two are now considered separate species (Ugueto and Harvey 2010). Little has been published on the natural history of C. murinus. Most of the literature on the natural history of “C. murinus” actually pertains to C. ruthveni and includes studies on diet (Dearing and Schall 1992, Schall 1996), body temperature (Schall and Dearing 1994), metabolic expenditure (Bennett and Gleeson 1979), population density and energetics (Bennett and Gorman 1979), signaling behavior (Cooper et al. 2004), escape behavior (Cooper et al. 2003), and learning (Schall 2000). In contrast, published literature on C. murinus that deals with topics other than its taxonomy, morphology, and distribution is limited to a few notes on its parasites (Specian and Whittaker 1980), pathology (Hughes and Delis 2014), clutch size (van Buurt 2011), conservation (van Buurt 2006), and interactions with tourists (van Buurt 2011). Herein I add to the published knowledge of C. murinus with observations on diet and foraging.

A common response among lizards to the approach of a predator is to attempt to avoid detection by moving out of the predator’s view. This may involve moving to the opposite side of a twig or tree trunk, moving into a burrow, or moving into vegetation or other structures (McElroy 2019). Here, I report an unusual behavior to avoid detection in the Aruba Whiptail (Cnemidophorus arubensis), a teiid endemic to the island of Aruba. This behavior involves movement into a shadow in the open, with no further concealment.A common response among lizards to the approach of a predator is to attempt to avoid detection by moving out of the predator’s view. This may involve moving to the opposite side of a twig or tree trunk, moving into a burrow, or moving into vegetation or other structures (McElroy 2019). Here, I report an unusual behavior to avoid detection in the Aruba Whiptail (Cnemidophorus arubensis), a teiid endemic to the island of Aruba. This behavior involves movement into a shadow in the open, with no further concealment.

Three teiid species (Squamata: Teiidae) are endemic to the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao) of the former Netherlands Antilles: the Aruba Whiptail (Cnemidophorus arubensis) of Aruba, the Bonaire Whiptail (C. ruthveni) of Bonaire and Klein-Bonaire, and the Curaçao Whiptail (C. murinus) of Curaçao and Klein-Curaçao. Before now, social displays have been described only for one of these three species: C. ruthveni (Baird et al. 2003). All three species engage in an arm-waving display that involves forelimb circumduction (Baird et al. 2003; van Buurt 2005; van Buurt 2011), which conveys social signals to conspecifics in some iguanian and lacertid lizard species (Carpenter et al. 1970; Verbeek 1972; Mitchell 1973). However, this behavior in the ABC island species of Cnemidophorus has not been shown to have a social function (Baird et al. 2003). Instead, experimental evidence demonstrates that in C. ruthveni it functions as a pursuit deterrent display that is performed in response to approaching humans, whom the lizard may view as potential predators (Cooper et al. 2004), although there are not yet any published reports of C. ruthveni performing the display in response to the approach of a non-human predator. My observations and those of others (van Buurt 2011) also confirm that in C. arubensis the display is performed in response to approaching humans.