IVES, T. T.*; SCHILLER, J. R.; University of Tennessee; Austin Peay State University: Effects of Tail Autotomy on Behavior and Pheromone Communication of the Five-Lined Skink, Eumeces fasciatus

We tested the effect of tail autotomy on social status of the lizard Eumeces fasciatus (Five-Lined Skink). We recorded the duration of the contest, i. e. time until one of the males retreats, as well as other behaviors displayed during the contest including tongue flicks, tail wags, and bites to check if there was a positive or negative relationship among these behaviors to dominance classification before and after tail autotomy. At the conclusion of each dominance contest a pheromone sample was collected from each male by wiping the cloacal region with a cotton swab. Each male E. fasciatus was presented with a cloacal swab from itself (a positive control) and from its opponent in the dominance contest, as well as a swab with distilled water (a negative control). The pheromone swab was presented to each lizard for 60 s or until the lizard displayed one of these behaviors: stands ground, or retreat, or bite the swab. We classified the response of male lizards to cloacal swabs presented to them as neutral if they responded with �stands ground�, submissive if they retreated, and dominant if they bit it. We recorded the number of tongue flicks a lizard made in response to each cloacal swab to test if male E. fasciatus could distinguish their own pheromone from familiar males. Lastly we compared dominance classifications from the dominance contests to the dominance classifications from the pheromone tests to see if the response of the male lizard to the pheromone swab was consistent with their response to the male lizard from which the pheromone swab was obtained.