Western Fence Lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis) chemical signals. III. An experimental ethogram of conspecific body licking

✍ Scribed by Duvall, David

• Book ID: 102336948
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1982
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 404 KB
• Volume: 221
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-104X
• DOI: 10.1002/jez.1402210105

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The loci and frequency of conspecific body licking actions of naturally breeding, adult western fence lizards, Sceloporus occidentalis biseriatus, were catalogued and analyzed in an experimental ethogram procedure. The purpose of the study was to begin to localize regions of the western fence lizard body that might exude or carry conspecific chemical signals, or pheromones, important in social encounters of close physical proximity. Among pairs of males, females, and males and females, male stimulus lizards were licked more than stimulus females on (1) the head and face and (2) the flank‐back region, and this was exhibited equally by both male and female experimental lizards (each pair was composed of an experimental and stimulus lizard). Although male and female stimulus animals were licked equally on their legs, experimental females exhibited higher levels of this action than did experimental males. A few tail licks occurred, but no differences of any type were obtained. The results suggest the possibility that pheromones carried on, or exuded from, certain fence lizard body regions, such as the head and face, for example, may play a releasing or eliciting function in social encounters of close physical proximity. Such cues probably are detected by the tongue‐vomeronasal system.