Chemical blindness in Liolaemus lizards is counterbalanced by visual signals, the case of two species with different communication modalities

RUIZ-MONACHESI, MARIO R.; VALDECANTOS, SOLEDAD; CRUZ, FÉLIX B.

AMPHIBIA-REPTILIA

BRILL ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS

Año: 2020 vol. 41 p. 323 - 336

0173-5373

Animals employ a wide variety of communication tactics that rely on distinct sensory modalities. Lizards arecharacterized by their heightened dependence on chemical and visual communication. Some authors have proposed thata reduced number of chemical secretory pores may be associated with an increased visual dependence in some species.Here, we study two species of Liolaemus lizards with different chemical features to compare their visual and chemicalcommunication. The first species, L. coeruleus, does not have precloacal pores in either sex, while L. albiceps has precloacalpores in both sexes. We expect that L. coeruleus will principally adhere to the visual modality, while L. albiceps will showgreater chemical responses.We filmed the lizard?s response to different chemical and visual stimuli. In the trials, both speciesdemonstrated chemical self-recognition, L. albiceps exhibited less total time in motion but more behavioural displays in thepresence of conspecific scents, suggesting conspecific chemical recognition too. On the other hand, visuals results showedthat L. coeruleus reacted more to the presence of conspecifics than L. albiceps. These observations suggest that L. coeruleusrelies more on visual signalization, while L. albiceps has a greater dependence on chemical communication. Our results mayindicate a correspondence between precloacal secretions and the response to these by conspecifics in both species studied.