Clutch size and reproductive effort in the lizardLacerta viviparaJacquin

✍ Scribed by R. A. Avery

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag
• Year: 1975
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 350 KB
• Volume: 19
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0029-8549
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00369099

✦ Synopsis

The ratio clutch weight:body weight in Lacerta viv@ara is 0.4; larger lizards produce more eggs, and total clutch weight is isometric with body weight. The clutch represents between 7% and 9% of the estimated annual assimilation of a female lizard, and 23-24% of the assimilation during the period between emergence from hibernation and the establishment of the eggs in the oviducts.

Energy budgets of animals have received increasing attention in recent years. One feature of such budgets which has been examined in detail is the way in which the energy available to the individuals of a species is apportioned between reproductive and other activities (Williams, 1966;Pianka, 1970). Lizards have been studied from this point of view by Tinkle (1969) and Tinkle et al. (1970).

Lacerta viv@ara Jaequin is of considerable interest because it occurs in cool temperate climates rather than in the warmer subtropical and tropical areas with which lizards are usually associated, and in which they have been most commonly studied. In Britain, adult females produce annually one clutch, which is retained in the oviducts until the eggs are ready to hatch. This paper examines the relationship between the food energy available to an adult female lizard in the field, and the energy cost of producing the clutch.