Meeting Abstract

117.5  Tuesday, Jan. 7 11:15  Relationships between dewlap morphology, display behavior, and sexual size dimorphism in the South Asian agamid lizard species complex, Sitana ponticeriana . KAMATH, A; Harvard University ambikamath@gmail.com

Many lizards in the family Agamidae engage in colorful and complex visual displays aimed at attracting the attention of conspecifics. The South Asian lizard species complex, Sitana ponticeriana, is ideally suited to understanding the relationships between different components of the visual display. Distributed across South Asia in open scrubland and coastal habitat, populations of the Sitana ponticeriana species complex can differ dramatically in the size and coloration of the dewlap, a fan-like structure under the throat that is extended while displaying. I quantified dewlap morphology and display behavior in eight populations of this species complex, and found variation that indicates an inverse relationship between the behavioral and morphological complexity of display components. Further, sexual size dimorphism, but not habitat structure, was significantly different between populations that differ in dewlap morphology and display behavior, indicating that sexual selection might be involved in behavioral and morphological diversification within this species complex.