Information content of ultraviolet-reflecting colour patches and visual perception of body coloration in the Tyrrhenian wall lizard Podarcis tiliguerta - Aix-Marseille Université Accéder directement au contenu
Article Dans Une Revue Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Année : 2021

Information content of ultraviolet-reflecting colour patches and visual perception of body coloration in the Tyrrhenian wall lizard Podarcis tiliguerta

Résumé

Colour signals are ubiquitous in nature but only recently have researchers recognised the potential of ultraviolet (UV)-reflecting colour patches to function as signals of quality. Lacertid lizards often display UV-blue patches on their flanks and black spots over their entire body, both of which are under sexual selection. They also have a cryptic dorsum and some species have a conspicuous, polymorphic ventral coloration. In this study, we use the Tyrrhenian wall lizard Podarcis tiliguerta to investigate the information content of the lateral UV-blue patches and black melanin spots of males by assessing the relationship between colour features and individual quality traits. In addition, we use a visual modelling procedure to examine whether the colora-tion of the different body parts and different colour morphs can be distinguished by a wall lizard visual system. We found that larger males had more numerous and larger UV-blue patches, with a higher UV chroma, UV-shifted hue, but a lower spectral intensity than smaller males. The extent of black on the throat, dorsum, and flanks also correlated with male body size and size-corrected head length but not with colour features of the UV-blue patches. These results suggest that the UV-blue and melanic colour patches may provide different, non-redundant information about male resource holding potential, and thus act as condition-dependent indicators of male quality. Finally, we found that the different body parts can be chromatically distin-guished from each other, and that the UV-blue patches are the most conspicuous while the dorsum is the least conspicuous.
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Dates et versions

hal-03584137 , version 1 (22-02-2022)

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Arnaud Badiane, Enrique Font. Information content of ultraviolet-reflecting colour patches and visual perception of body coloration in the Tyrrhenian wall lizard Podarcis tiliguerta. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 2021, 75 (6), pp.96. ⟨10.1007/s00265-021-03023-2⟩. ⟨hal-03584137⟩
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