Poma-Soto Franco, Narváez Andrea E, Romero-Carvajal Andrés
Escuela de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Quito 170525, Ecuador.
Fundacion Great Leaf, De las Azucenas N47-60 y Av. Eloy Alfaro, Quito 170503, Ecuador.
Animals (Basel). 2021 Oct 21;11(11):3022. doi: 10.3390/ani11113022.
It has been suggested that gymnophthalmids, like most semi-fossorial lacertoids, rely more in chemical cues to communicate, in comparison to other groups, like Iguanids, on which communication is mostly based on visual signaling. We present the first description of visual signaling in the Andean lizard (Gymnophthalmidae) and a complete ethogram based on ex situ observations (34 different types of behaviors including positions and simple movements). Through the design of conspecific stimulus experiments, we were able to recognize leg-waving as a visual signal, as it is only displayed in presence of conspecifics or in presence of a mirror and was one of first and most frequent displays in this context. We also detected other visual displays like neck-arching and tail-undulation which may also be relevant as visual signals. Based on our results, we propose that visual signaling is also possible in semi-fossorial lizards; however, further studies regarding chemical signal recognition and color detection are required to confirm our hypothesis.
有人提出，与大多数半穴居的蜥蜴类动物一样，裸眼蜥相较于其他类群（如主要依靠视觉信号进行交流的鬣蜥科），更多地依赖化学信号进行交流。我们首次描述了安第斯蜥蜴（裸眼蜥科）的视觉信号，并基于异地观察给出了一份完整的行为谱（包括34种不同类型的行为，涵盖姿势和简单动作）。通过设计同种刺激实验，我们能够识别挥腿动作是一种视觉信号，因为它仅在同种个体在场或有镜子时才会展示，并且是这种情况下最早出现且最频繁的展示行为之一。我们还检测到了其他视觉展示行为，如颈部拱起和尾部摆动，它们也可能作为视觉信号具有相关性。基于我们的研究结果，我们提出半穴居蜥蜴也有可能进行视觉信号交流；然而，需要进一步开展关于化学信号识别和颜色检测的研究来证实我们的假设。
