Meeting Abstract

3.1  Thursday, Jan. 3  Field presentations of conspecific chemicals alter social display rates in the white-bellied Sceloporus virgatus but not in the blue-bellied S. undulatus lizard HEWS, DK; DATE, P**; CASTELLANO, M; HARA, E; Indiana State Univ., Terre Haute; Indiana State Univ., Terre Haute; Pennsylvania State Univ. Univ. Park; Duke Univ., Durham dhews@indstate.edu

Many lizards can distinguish features such as species, sex, and immune status using conspecific chemicals, as assessed by differential tongue flick rates or side preferences, but studies rarely document changes in social display behavior in response to conspecific chemicals, and do so in the field. We studied display behavior in free-ranging males of two Sceloporus species that differ in occurrence of a visual signal, blue abdominal patches (S. undulatus males blue; S. virgatus, males white). Using paper swabs attached to a 2 m pole, we presented cloacal/femoral-pore secretions from adult males (M treatment) or a clean control swab (C treatment) and then observed individual males for 5 min. The mean total distance moved was greater in the blue compared to the white species (species effect P=0.006). In S. virgatus there were significant treatment effects, with higher mean number of moves (P=0.027), total distance moved (P=0.027), and rates of push-up (P<0.001), a social display, in the M treatment. The blue species used visual displays more, including shudder bob (a courtship display) and push-up, but there was no effect of treatment. The white species tended (P=0.07) to use more chemosensory behaviors (e.g., tongue flick) in M versus C treatments; the blue species did not. We also presented male S. virgatus with chemicals from adult females, but found no significant differences between responses to male and female chemicals for any behavior. Our data indicate chemicals alter social behavior only in the white species, and that the blue species has higher overall use of visual display and amount of movement in the field.