Notes on Reproduction and Variation in the Blue-tailed Lizard, Eumeces elegans (Reptilia: Scincidae), on Kita-kojima Island of the Senkaku Group, Ryukyu Archipelago

Abstract

A field survey was carried out for a population of Eumeces elegans on Kita-kojima Island of the Senkaku Group, Ryukyu Archipelago. Data for several reproductive parameters, such as clutch size, egg size, hatchling size, and hatching date, are provided for the first time for the Japanese populations of this species. Variations in midbody scale rows and hatchling coloration between the Senkaku populations and the Taiwanese and continental populations are clarified and their geohistorical significance is discussed briefly.

Reproductive traits and change in body shape of neonates in the Oak Forest Skink, Plestiodon lynxe

“…The most likely reason is that most of the oviparous species studied by Tinkle et al (1970) were multiple clutches and therefore with relatively small clutch sizes, while no oviparous Plestiodon species has more than one clutch per year and some breed biannually ( P . reynoldsi : Ashton, 2005; P. latiscutatus : Hasegawa, 1984; P. elegans : Ota, 2004), which should favour a larger clutch size. On the other hand, the lower fecundity of P. lynxe , and possibly of the other viviparous Plestiodon species, may reflect a restriction in the maternal abdominal space available to house offspring acquired with the emergence of viviparity (Qualls & Shine, 1995; Recknagel & Elmer, 2019).…”