Program & Book of abstracts. 21st European Congress of Herpetology
Résumé
Environmental conditions and maternal effects can have profound effects on offspring phenotypes in terrestrial ectotherms. In reptiles, only a few studies examined the effects of elevation and maternal body size on reproductive traits. In general, in lizards, clutch size increases with female body size. Geckos, however, have fixed clutch sizes (one or two eggs) and thus may exhibit different patterns than those observed in other lizards. We assessed the effects of elevation and maternal body size on reproductive traits (i.e., egg mass, incubation time, size at hatching, and offspring body condition) in a adapted squamates, the Atlas day gecko, Quedenfeldtia trachyblepharus. We also provided new information on the reproduction biology of the Atlas day gecko (i.e., clutch size and hatching success). Atlas day geckos produced invariant clutches of one egg (n = 56). In low and high elevation populations, larger females produced heavier eggs (r²=0.27) and hatchlings (r²=0.39). Females from the low elevation population were in poorer body condition (t52=3.57; p < 0.001), produced lighter eggs (t50 = 2.78, p <0.01), and hatchlings in poorer body condition (t15 =2.63, p <0.05) than those from the high elevation population. Higher metabolic costs likely occurs in females from low land population exposed to warmer conditions.
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