Cargando…
UV-Deprived Coloration Reduces Success in Mate Acquisition in Male Sand Lizards (Lacerta agilis)
BACKGROUND: Recent work on animal signals has revealed a wide occurrence of UV signals in tetrapods, in particular birds, but also in lizards (and perhaps other Squamate reptiles). Our previous work on the Swedish sand lizard (Lacerta agilis) has verified, both in correlative selection analyses in t...
Autores principales: | , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2011
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3094344/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21602928 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0019360 |
_version_ | 1782203548778364928 |
---|---|
author | Olsson, Mats Andersson, Staffan Wapstra, Erik |
author_facet | Olsson, Mats Andersson, Staffan Wapstra, Erik |
author_sort | Olsson, Mats |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Recent work on animal signals has revealed a wide occurrence of UV signals in tetrapods, in particular birds, but also in lizards (and perhaps other Squamate reptiles). Our previous work on the Swedish sand lizard (Lacerta agilis) has verified, both in correlative selection analyses in the wild and with laboratory and field experiments, the importance of the green ‘badge’ on the body sides of adult males for securing mating opportunities, probably mostly through deterring rival males rather than attracting females. The role of UV in communication has, however, never been examined. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here we show that when measured immediately after spring skin shedding, there is also signaling in the UV. By UV-depriving the signal (reflectance) with sun block chemicals fixated with permeable, harmless spray dressing, we show that males in the control group (spray dressing only) had significantly higher success in mate acquisition than UV-deprived males. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These results suggest that at least two colour traits in sand lizards, badge area and UV, contribute to rival deterrence and/or female choice on UV characters, which elevates success in mate acquisition in UV intact male sand lizards. |
format | Text |
id | pubmed-3094344 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2011 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-30943442011-05-19 UV-Deprived Coloration Reduces Success in Mate Acquisition in Male Sand Lizards (Lacerta agilis) Olsson, Mats Andersson, Staffan Wapstra, Erik PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: Recent work on animal signals has revealed a wide occurrence of UV signals in tetrapods, in particular birds, but also in lizards (and perhaps other Squamate reptiles). Our previous work on the Swedish sand lizard (Lacerta agilis) has verified, both in correlative selection analyses in the wild and with laboratory and field experiments, the importance of the green ‘badge’ on the body sides of adult males for securing mating opportunities, probably mostly through deterring rival males rather than attracting females. The role of UV in communication has, however, never been examined. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here we show that when measured immediately after spring skin shedding, there is also signaling in the UV. By UV-depriving the signal (reflectance) with sun block chemicals fixated with permeable, harmless spray dressing, we show that males in the control group (spray dressing only) had significantly higher success in mate acquisition than UV-deprived males. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These results suggest that at least two colour traits in sand lizards, badge area and UV, contribute to rival deterrence and/or female choice on UV characters, which elevates success in mate acquisition in UV intact male sand lizards. Public Library of Science 2011-05-13 /pmc/articles/PMC3094344/ /pubmed/21602928 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0019360 Text en Olsson et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Olsson, Mats Andersson, Staffan Wapstra, Erik UV-Deprived Coloration Reduces Success in Mate Acquisition in Male Sand Lizards (Lacerta agilis) |
title | UV-Deprived Coloration Reduces Success in Mate Acquisition in Male Sand Lizards (Lacerta agilis) |
title_full | UV-Deprived Coloration Reduces Success in Mate Acquisition in Male Sand Lizards (Lacerta agilis) |
title_fullStr | UV-Deprived Coloration Reduces Success in Mate Acquisition in Male Sand Lizards (Lacerta agilis) |
title_full_unstemmed | UV-Deprived Coloration Reduces Success in Mate Acquisition in Male Sand Lizards (Lacerta agilis) |
title_short | UV-Deprived Coloration Reduces Success in Mate Acquisition in Male Sand Lizards (Lacerta agilis) |
title_sort | uv-deprived coloration reduces success in mate acquisition in male sand lizards (lacerta agilis) |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3094344/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21602928 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0019360 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT olssonmats uvdeprivedcolorationreducessuccessinmateacquisitioninmalesandlizardslacertaagilis AT anderssonstaffan uvdeprivedcolorationreducessuccessinmateacquisitioninmalesandlizardslacertaagilis AT wapstraerik uvdeprivedcolorationreducessuccessinmateacquisitioninmalesandlizardslacertaagilis |