Ecology and Natural History of Desert Lizards

Pianka, Eric R.

doi:10.1515/9781400886142

Cited by 558 publications

(499 citation statements)

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“…Focusing exclusively on iguanian lizards is appropriate as we know of no skinks, geckos or other lizards on either continent that are morphologically similar to iguanians. In addition, iguanians are the only diurnal, sit-and-wait predators in both regions of our study (Pianka 1986).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 75%

“…This permutation is statistically equivalent to randomly assigning half of the 42 lizard species to each continent; our test is thus related to Community convergence in desert lizards J. Melville and others 559 the 'pseudocommunity' approach developed by other authors (e.g. Pianka 1986). We compared our actual test statistic to this null distribution to calculate a one-sided p-value, with pZ1K(rank of actual test-statistic in null distribution)/ (number of permutationsC1).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A classic example is Pianka's study of desert lizard communities across three continents (Pianka 1986). The herpetofaunas of North America, Africa and Australia are dominated by different lizards: e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Intercontinental community convergence of ecology and morphology in desert lizards

2005

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Evolutionary ecologists have long debated the extent to which communities in similar environments but different geographic regions exhibit convergence. On the one hand, if species' adaptations and community structure are determined by environmental features, convergence would be expected. However, if historical contingencies have long-lasting effects convergence would be unlikely. Most studies to date have emphasized the differences between communities in similar environments and little quantitative evidence for convergence exists. The application of comparative phylogenetic methods to ecological studies provides an opportunity to further investigate hypotheses of convergence. We compared the evolutionary patterns of structural ecology and morphology of 42 species of iguanian lizards from deserts of Australia and North America. Using a comparative approach, we found that evolutionary convergence of ecology and morphology occurs both in overall, community-wide patterns and in terms of pairs of highly similar intercontinental pairs of species. This result indicates that in these desert lizards, deterministic adaptive evolution shapes community patterns and overrides the historical contingencies unique to particular lineages.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 75%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Intercontinental community convergence of ecology and morphology in desert lizards

2005

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“…All statistical analyses were performed using Systat‚ 11.0. The spatial niche breadth (sensu Pianka, 1973Pianka, , 1986 of the mites was estimated for each host species, in terms of proportional utilization of the different regions …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns of infestation by the trombiculid miteEutrombicula alfreddugesiin four sympatric lizard species (genusTropidurus) in northeastern Brazil

et al. 2008

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Summary :We studied the parasitism by the chigger mite Eutrombicula alfreddugesi on four sympatric lizard species of the genus Tropidurus in Morro do Chapéu, Bahia state, Brazil: T. hispidus, T. cocorobensis, T. semitaeniatus and T. erythrocephalus. For each species, we investigated the patterns of infestation and analyzed to which extent they varied among the hosts. We calculated the spatial niche breadth of the chigger mite on the body of each host species and the distribution of mites along the hosts' bodies for each Tropidurus species. All four species of Tropidurus at Morro do Chapéu were parasited by the chigger mite, with high (97-100 %) prevalences. Host body size significantly explained the intensity of mite infestation for all species, except T. erythrocephalus. The body regions with highest intensity of infestation in the four lizard species were the mite pockets. The spacial niche width of the chigger varied consistently among the four lizards species studied being highest for T. erytrocephalus and lowest for T. cocorobensis. We conclude that the distribution and intensity with which lizards of the genus Tropidurus are infested by Eutrombicula alfreddugesi larvae results from the interaction between aspects of host morphology (such as body size and the occurrence and distribution of mite pockets) and ecology (especially microhabitat use). Résumé : MODÈLES D'INFESTATION PAR L'ACARIEN TROMBICULIDE EUTROMBICULA ALFREDDUGESI CHEZ QUATRE ESPÈCES SYMPATRIQUES DE LÉZARD (GENRE TROPIDURUS) AU NORD-EST DU BRÉSIL

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“…As a safeguard, we sampled ectoparasites and Amblyopinini from each host only once (standardized as its first capture). For each ectoparasite or amblyopine species, we estimated the number of individuals on each body region and calculated the spatial occupation niche (Pianka, 1973(Pianka, , 1986 according to the spectrum of microhabitats used (body regions) by the species to this end, we used the Simpson index (Simpson, 1949), B ij = 1/Σ P i 2 in which P i is the proportion of individuals of the i species associated with each body region of the host. To measure the overlap of preferred sites (microhabitats) used by syntopic ectoparasite and amblyopine species on a host species, we used the niche overlap equation (Pianka, 1986) first proposed by MacArthur and Levins (MacArthur & Levins, 1967):…”

Section: Gyropus Lineatus 185mentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial use of rodents (Rodentia: Mammalia) host body surface by ectoparasites

Bittencourt

Rocha²

2002

Braz. J. Biol.

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We studied the ectoparasite and the Amblyopinini beetle fauna associated with four small mammal species of the Atlantic Rainforest of Ilha Grande, an island located off the southern Rio de Janeiro State Coast, Southeastern Brazil, analyzing to what extent the parasites were specific to each region of the host body. During the study, a total of 90 individual rodents were captured: 61 Proechimys iheringi Thomas, 1911 (Echymyidae), 22 Sciurus aestuans (Thomas, 1901) (Sciuridae), 4 Oxymycterus sp. (Waterhouse, 1837), and 2 Nectomys squamipes (Brants, 1827) (Sigmodontinae). The data showed that the ectoparasites and Amblyopinini on some rodent hosts in Ilha Grande tend to prefer particular host body sites, and that some ectoparasite species sites may overlap owing to their inaccessibility to the host.Key words: small mammal, parasitim, ectoparasites, Atlantic Rainforest, rodent. Palavras-chave: pequenos mamíferos, parasitismo, ectoparasitas, Mata Atlântica, roedores. RESUMO

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Ecology and Natural History of Desert Lizards

Cited by 558 publications

References 0 publications

Intercontinental community convergence of ecology and morphology in desert lizards

Intercontinental community convergence of ecology and morphology in desert lizards

Patterns of infestation by the trombiculid miteEutrombicula alfreddugesiin four sympatric lizard species (genusTropidurus) in northeastern Brazil

Spatial use of rodents (Rodentia: Mammalia) host body surface by ectoparasites

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