Anolis utowanae was described by Thomas Barbour in 1932 with an accompanying backstory reviewing the collection of the holotype and only specimen in detail. Subsequent workers have been unable to procure additional representatives of this species near the purported type locality of Mazatlán, Mexico, and it has remained a taxonomic enigma since its description. Here I show that A. utowanae is a junior synonym of A. conspersus, a species endemic to Grand Cayman in the West Indies. The type specimen appears to have been part of a series collected by Barbour on Grand Cayman during his 1931 trip from Miami to the Panama Canal and then North to Pacific Mexico, including Mazatlán, on the yacht named Utowana. How the specimen came to be associated with Mazatlán remains a mystery.