Stapley Jessica, Whiting Martin J
University of the Witwatersrand, School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, 1 Jan Smuts Avenue, Private Bag 3, 2050 WITS, Johannesburg 2000, South Africa.
Biol Lett. 2006 Jun 22;2(2):169-72. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2005.0419.
Ultraviolet (UV) signals are used in female mate choice in numerous taxa; however, the role of UV signals in male contests remains relatively unexplored. We experimentally reduced throat UV of free-ranging lizards (Platysaurus broadleyi) to test whether UV acts as a signal of fighting ability during male contests. We found that UV-reduced males were more likely to be challenged than control males. However, contest outcome was not influenced by UV-reduction, and this was despite other obvious asymmetries between opponents, such as body size and residency. Throat UV was confirmed as a signal of fighting ability because contests were more likely to escalate when one contestant had reduced UV. Therefore, throat UV, not body size or residency, was used during the initial stage of opponent assessment, but this did not influence contest outcome. The results suggest that UV overrides other traits that could function as signals during rival assessment.
紫外线（UV）信号在众多分类群的雌性配偶选择中被使用；然而，UV信号在雄性竞争中的作用仍相对未被探索。我们通过实验降低了自由放养蜥蜴（Platysaurus broadleyi）喉部的紫外线，以测试紫外线在雄性竞争中是否作为战斗能力的信号。我们发现，紫外线降低的雄性比对照雄性更有可能受到挑战。然而，竞争结果不受紫外线降低的影响，尽管对手之间存在其他明显的不对称性，如体型和居留情况。喉部紫外线被确认为战斗能力的信号，因为当一名参赛者的紫外线降低时，竞争更有可能升级。因此，在对手评估的初始阶段使用的是喉部紫外线，而不是体型或居留情况，但这并不影响竞争结果。结果表明，紫外线优先于其他在对手评估过程中可能作为信号的特征。
