Chemical blindness in Liolaemus lizards is counterbalanced by visual signals, the case of two species with different communication modalities

Abstract Animals employ a wide variety of communication tactics that rely on distinct sensory modalities. Lizards are characterized by their heightened dependence on chemical and visual communication. Some authors have proposed that a reduced number of chemical secretory pores may be associated with an increased visual dependence in some species. Here, we study two species of Liolaemus lizards with different chemical features to compare their visual and chemical communication. The first species, L. coeruleus, does not have precloacal pores in either sex, while L. albiceps has precloacal pores in both sexes. We expect that L. coeruleus will principally adhere to the visual modality, while L. albiceps will show greater chemical responses. We filmed the lizard's response to different chemical and visual stimuli. In the trials, both species demonstrated chemical self-recognition, L. albiceps exhibited less total time in motion but more behavioural displays in the presence of conspecific scents, suggesting conspecific chemical recognition too. On the other hand, visuals results showed that L. coeruleus reacted more to the presence of conspecifics than L. albiceps. These observations suggest that L. coeruleus relies more on visual signalization, while L. albiceps has a greater dependence on chemical communication. Our results may indicate a correspondence between precloacal secretions and the response to these by conspecifics in both species studied

Primer registro de <i>Mesocestoides</i> sp. (Ciclophyllidea: Cestoda) en dos hembras de <i>Diplolaemus leopardinus</i> (Werner, 1898)

El parasitismo interno en lagartos, es causado frecuentemente por nematodos, pentastómidos y cestodos. Entre los cestodos, los Ciclophyllidea constituyen un grupo que afecta principalmente a reptiles y que se caracterizan por causar enfermedades de importancia veterinaria. En este Orden se encuentra el género Mesocestoides (Vaillant 1863), compuesto por gusanos planos, habitantes del tracto intestinal y ocasionalmente de las cavidades peritoneales. En este trabajo se evidencia la presencia de Mesocestoides parasitando a Diplolaemus leopardinus (Werner 1898), perteneciente a una población localizada entre Primeros Pinos y Kilca (38° 54’ 10.0’’S; 70° 44’ 18.5’’O. 1718 m), Departamento Picunches, Neuquén, Argentina. Párrafo extraído del texto a modo de resumenFacultad de Ciencias Naturales y Muse

Estudios sobre anuros de Argentina durante la década 2010-2020: tendencias y vacíos de información

Scientific knowledge may present taxonomic, geographic and thematic biases, which could have negative consequences on conservation decisions, especially in highly threatened groups such as amphibians. This work aimed to explore the scientific production of anurans from Argentina during the 2010-2020 decade, to understand the current state of knowledge and identify possible biases and information gaps. Our results showed that the production of scientific knowledge on anurans from Argentina remained constant during the studied period. Nonetheless, we observed taxonomic, geographic and topic biases. The number of studies was higher in areas with higher human population density and on topics related to morphology, as well as for common species with medium body sizes, general habits, with a broad geographic distribution, and occurring in rural-urban areas. Our results represent a baseline to clarify and evidence the different biases of scientific knowledge about anurans from Argentina.La producción del conocimiento científico puede presentar sesgos taxonómicos, geográficos y temáticos, los que a su vez podrían tener consecuencias negativas al momento de tomar decisiones en conservación, sobre todo en grupos altamente amenazados como son los anfibios. El objetivo de este trabajo fue explorar la producción científica sobre anuros de Argentina durante la década 2010-2020, a fin de establecer el estado actual del conocimiento e identificar posibles sesgos y vacíos de información. Nuestros resultados sugieren que la producción del conocimiento científico en anuros de Argentina se mantuvo constante en el período estudiado. Se observaron sesgos en cuanto a la distribución geográfica de las publicaciones, en las especies más estudiadas y en los temas abordados. El número de estudios fue mayor en provincias con una densidad de su población más alta y en temas relacionados con morfología, así como para especies comunes con tamaños corporales medianos, de hábitos generalistas, con una amplia distribución geográfica, y con ocurrencia en zonas rurales-urbanas. Estos resultados constituyen un punto de partida para esclarecer y evidenciar los diferentes sesgos del conocimiento científico sobre anuros de Argentina.Asociación Herpetológica Argentin

Complex distress calls sound frightening: the case of the weeping lizard

Individuals of many species utter distress calls when are attacked or trapped by a predator. These vocalizations can help them to escape but may also help conspecifics to reduce their predation risk, by inducing antipredator behaviours. Calls can encode information that modulates these antipredator responses, and the ‘nonlinearity and fear hypothesis’ proposes that complex nonlinear calls may trigger more fearful responses, because they encode higher levels of stress. We tested this hypothesis with the weeping lizard, Liolaemus chiliensis, which utters distress calls with and without nonlinear phenomena (complex and simple calls, respectively), and conspecifics respond to simple calls with antipredator behaviours. Here, we evaluated whether this species discriminates between these two types of calls, predicting higher levels of fear with complex calls. We also tested whether lizards experience less fear if calls are perceived in a safe environment, such as one full of their own scents (‘home’). Our playback experiments showed that complex calls scared the lizards more than simple calls, triggering a reduction in activity, and prolonging attempts to escape. Lizards in their own-scented environments took longer to restore their activity after hearing complex than simple calls, suggesting that this combination of stimuli was more alarming. We postulate that the predation event was unexpected at ‘home’, which together with the nonlinearity of the call made a more frightening event for the lizards

Sobre el estatus taxonómico de <i>Liolaemus shitan</i> (Abdala <i>et al.</i>, 2010) Iguania: Liolaemidae

The description of Liolaemus shitan was made based on an exhaustive morphological diagnosis. However, due to the lack of molecular evidence, a later phylogeographic study suggested that L. shitan would not be a valid species, but rather a synonym for L. elongatus. Here, after careful examination, we show numerous evidences of external morphology, coloration, physiological data and distribution, which would indicate that L. shitan is a valid species different from L. elongatus. Therefore, we consider L. shitan as a valid species.Asociación Herpetológica Argentin