Geographical Ecology of<i>Tropidurus hispidus</i>(Squamata: Tropiduridae) and<i>Cnemidophorus ocellifer</i>(Squamata: Teiidae) in a Neotropical Region: A Comparison among Atlantic Forest, Caatinga, and Coastal Populations

Albuquerque, Ralph L.; Protázio, Arielson dos Santos; Cavalcanti, Lucas Barbosa de Queiroga; Lopez, Luiz Carlos Serramo; Mesquita, Daniel Oliveira

doi:10.1670/16-018

Cited by 16 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…We did not find variations between prey offer and diet composition of Ameivula ocellifera regardless of seasons. Arthropods were available to consumption in both seasons, with a predominance of insects, which in turn are the main food items consumed by lizards (e.g., Tropidurus torquatus (Wied-Neuwied, 1820), Carvalho et al, 2007; Ameiva edracantha (= Medopheos edracanthus) (Bocourt, 1874), Jordán and Amaya, 2011; Cnemidophorus ocellifer (= Ameivula ocellifera) and Tropidurus hispidus (Spix, 1825), Albuquerque et al, 2018). As in most seasonal tropical environments, the abundance of insects in the studied site was higher during the rainy period (Vasconcellos et al, 2010).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns of diet composition of a whiptail lizard species conforms to the Shared Preferences Model of interindividual variation in prey consumption

2020

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We analysed the interindividual variation in diet, patterns of food resource use and topology of the trophic networks of juvenile, male, and female Ameivula ocellifera (Spix, 1825) during one year, covering wet and dry seasons. Using a network-based approach, we evaluated the degree of variation in the diet of individuals, and the degree of nestedness and clustering to identify patterns of resource use and the topology of individuals food webs. We found a high degree of interindividual variation in the diet of juveniles, males, and females during the study period, which seems to be related to nested patterns of resource use of males and females. These results also suggest that males and females seem to have both generalist and specialist individuals, of which the diets of specialists are nested within the diets of generalists. For juveniles, we found evidence of interindividual variation in diet in both seasons, although patterns of food resource partition that may cause it could not be identified. Insect larvae of several groups were the main food resource in all three lizard groups during the wet season, while termites were the dominant food item during the dry season. Our results conform to the Shared Preferences Model where individuals should consume the same top-ranked prey when they are abundant in the environment, replacing it with suboptimal items as preferred ones become scarce.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns of diet composition of a whiptail lizard species conforms to the Shared Preferences Model of interindividual variation in prey consumption

2020

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“…The results provide evidence that urbanization has a positive effect on the density of lagartixas. The peri‐urban and medium urbanized areas had the highest density of lagartixas, whereas the lowest densities were in the rural sites, despite a higher abundance of ants (see Figure d), an important food resource for lagartixas (Albuquerque et al, ; Ribeiro & Freire, ). The density of lagartixas in the highly urbanized site, even though higher, did not differ significantly from the rural areas.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Tropidurus hispidus (Figure ) is a terrestrial, medium‐sized lizard; the maximum snout–vent length (SVL) range for males is 109–143 and 89–91 mm for females (Albuquerque, Protazio, Cavalcanti, Lopez, & Mesquita, ). This species has a wide range distribution in open habitats of South America and shows a continuous and uniform distribution in the Caatinga dry forest and coastal areas of northeastern Brazil (Carvalho, ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Metropolitan lizards? Urbanization gradient and the density of lagartixas (Tropidurus hispidus) in a tropical city

Andrade

2019

Ecology and Evolution

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Urbanization, with its cohort of environmental stressors, has a dramatic effect on wildlife, causing loss of biodiversity and decline in population abundance customarily associated with increasing levels of impervious surface and fragmentation of native habitats. Some studies suggest that faunal species from open habitats, and with higher abundance in natural environments, seem more likely to tolerate and live in urban environments. Here I evaluate how the level of urbanization affects lagartixas (Tropidurus hispidus) one of the most common lizards found in open vegetation ecosystems in NE Brazil. I surveyed a total of 47 transects across sites that differed in proportion of impervious surface (high, mild, peri‐urban, and rural). I also collected specific biotic (herbaceous cover, tree, and arthropod abundance) and abiotic (amount of shelters and impervious surfaces) factors that could affect lagartixas abundance. Ants were the most common arthropod both in the rural and urban environment. Lagartixas thrive in urban environments, and trees and shelter were key predictors of their abundance. Lagartixas show a clear association with use of artificial structures. The low densities of lagartixas in rural areas and higher density in urbanized areas suggest that they colonized urban areas due to the hard surfaces and they probably are not exploiting a novel habitat, but somewhat responding to conditions resembling those in which they evolved. Finally, lagartixas are extremely common in tropical cities, they have a suite of features that are associated with selective pressures in cities and they might play a key functional role in urban ecosystems making this lizard an excellent system for the study of ecology and adaptation to the urban environments.

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“…Lizards mainly regulate body temperatures behaviorally by moving between direct sunlight, filtered sun, and shaded sites to control heat exchange with the environment (Cowles and Bogert 1944, Bogert 1949, Rocha et al 2009, thereby maintaining a more or less constant body temperature in changing thermal environments (Vitt et al 2005, Albuquerque et al 2018. For example, in natural Caatinga, A. ocellifera spent more time in the sun and less time in the shade than lizards in the other two populations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behavioral adaptations in Ameivula ocellifera (Squamata: Teiidae) in response to thermal environmental changes

Sales

Freire

2019

Phyllomedusa

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Behavioral adaptations in Ameivula ocellifera (Squamata: Teiidae) in response to thermal environmental changes. Lizards rely on external sources to regulate body temperature, but in many species, it is not known whether lizards are able to change their thermoregulatory behaviors in response to variations in thermal environments. The seasonal thermal ecology of three populations of the Brazilian whiptail lizard, Ameivula ocellifera, in northeastern Brazil (two Caatinga sites and one in the Atlantic Forest) was investigated. The relationships between body temperature and microhabitat temperatures (substrate and air), and between body temperature and thermoregulatory behavior (i.e., time of exposure to sunlight classes and time spent basking) were explored. The average body temperatures of the lizards were 38–39°C; these neither varied seasonally nor among populations. Substrate and air temperatures are lower at the natural Caatinga site, and lizards in there spent less time in the shade and more time exposed to the sun. Microhabitat temperatures vary seasonally in natural Caatinga; they are lower in the rainy season, when lizards spent more time exposed to sun and less time in fltered sun. Lizard body temperatures exceeded microhabitat temperatures in the rainy season in all three populations; however, they did not exceed substrate temperature in the dry season. In each of the populations, lizards with low body temperatures during cloudy conditions spent more time basking. Thus, A. ocellifera adjusts its body temperature behaviorally to compensate for seasonal changes in environmental temperatures, as well as geographic thermal variation throughout its range.

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Geographical Ecology ofTropidurus hispidus(Squamata: Tropiduridae) andCnemidophorus ocellifer(Squamata: Teiidae) in a Neotropical Region: A Comparison among Atlantic Forest, Caatinga, and Coastal Populations

Cited by 16 publications

References 38 publications

Patterns of diet composition of a whiptail lizard species conforms to the Shared Preferences Model of interindividual variation in prey consumption

Patterns of diet composition of a whiptail lizard species conforms to the Shared Preferences Model of interindividual variation in prey consumption

Metropolitan lizards? Urbanization gradient and the density of lagartixas (Tropidurus hispidus) in a tropical city

Behavioral adaptations in Ameivula ocellifera (Squamata: Teiidae) in response to thermal environmental changes

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