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Habitat light and dewlap color diversity in four species of Puerto Rican anoline lizards

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Abstract

Closely related species often have signals that differ dramatically in design. The evolution of such differences may be important in the process of speciation. Selection for signal detectability under different habitat conditions has been proposed as a mechanism leading to the evolution of signal diversity. We examined dewlap color in four closely related species of Anolis lizards that occupy habitats with different light conditions. Initially, we tested the hypothesis that lizards choose specific light conditions within each habitat in which to signal. We rejected this hypothesis for all four species. We next calculated the detectability of the dewlap color of all four species at display locations in each habitat. If selection for detectability under the different light conditions explained the divergence in signal design, the occupant of a given habitat was predicted to have the highest signal detectability in that habitat. However, the rank order of detectability of the four dewlap colors was nearly the same in all four habitats. We concluded that divergent selection for signal detectability does not, by itself, explain the evolution of dewlap color diversity. We hypothesize that the evolution of dewlap color diversity results from simultaneous selection for multiple functions of dewlap color.

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Abbreviations

SD:

Standard deviation

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Acknowledgments

This research was partially supported by Whitehall Foundation grant S93-03 and National Science Foundation grant IBN-9307019 to LF, and National Science Foundation grants DBI 0001982 and IBN 9903232 to ML. We thank four anonymous reviewers for suggested improvements on the manuscript. We followed the Recommendations for the Care of Amphibians and Reptiles (Pough 1991) in treatment of animals used in this study. Animal usage was approved by the Union College Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (protocol no. 1056). Permits to work on the Puerto Rican anoles were received from the Departemento de Recursos Naturales y Ambientales of Puerto Rico. The experiments comply with the “Principles of animal care”, publication No. 86-23, revised 1985 of the National Institute of Health, and also with the current laws of the United States.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Union College, Schenectady, NY, 12309, USA

    Leo J. Fleishman

  2. Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA

    Manuel Leal

  3. Department of Biology, Susquehanna University, Selingsgrove, PA, 17870, USA

    Matthew H. Persons

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  1. Leo J. Fleishman
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Correspondence to Leo J. Fleishman.

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Fleishman, L.J., Leal, M. & Persons, M.H. Habitat light and dewlap color diversity in four species of Puerto Rican anoline lizards. J Comp Physiol A 195, 1043–1060 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-009-0478-8

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