Nesting in the lizard Phyllopezus pollicaris (Squamata: Phyllodactylidae) and a phylogenetic perspective on communal nesting in the family

Abstract

Nesting in the lizard Phyllopezus pollicaris (Squamata: Phyllodactylidae) and a phylogenetic perspective on communal nesting in the family. Communal nesting occurs in many reptile species. The hypotheses that explain the evolution of such behaviours are still controversial, but will be better understood as more communal nesting records are a communal nesting record for squamate species in a Cerrado core area. We provide nest photographs and detailed neonate measurements and weight. Nests were found during the dry season, in contrast with the reproduction pattern previously described for the species in the Cerrado periphery. We also conducted an extensive literature review seeking all available information on communal nesting information in Phyllodactylidae, and present this information in the context of a phylogenetic tree of phyllodactylid genera. We suggest that studying the correlation between communal nesting evolution and reproductive available in the literature. Keywords

Reproductive biology ofGymnodactylus darwinii(Gray, 1845) (Squamata: Phyllodactylidae) from southeastern Brazil

“…However, even among other gekkotans that lay rigid-shelled eggs incubation periods are not as long as that observed in G. darwinii (e.g. Domingos et al, 2017;Khannoon & Evans, 2020;Kluge, 1967;Somaweera, 2009), highlighting another interesting trait in the reproductive biology of this species.…”

Communal nesting and clutch characterization of Lygodactylus klugei (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from Brazilian semiarid region

“…Recorded observations of communal nesting in lizards of different families have increased in neotropical regions, including Teiidae (Magnusson andLima 1984, Filadelfo et al 2013), Dactyloidae (Montgomery et al 2011), Sphaerodactylidae (Oda 2004, Oliveira et al 2014, Carvajal-Ocampo et al 2019, Sales et al 2020), Phyllodactylidae (Vitt 1986, Rigui et al 2004, Ávila and Cunha-Avellar 2005, Cassimiro and Rodrigues 2010, Lima et al 2011, Domingos et al 2017, and Gekkonidae Freire 2010, Bezerra et al 2011). Communal nests have been reported for the gekkonid genus Lygodactylus on the African continent (Greer 1967, Simbotwe 1983, Rodríguez-Prieto et al 2010), but currently no records of this behavior have been reported for South American species.…”