Search results for "Lacerta agilis"

Ultraviolet reflectance of male nuptial colouration in sand lizards (Lacerta agilis) from the Pyrenees

2007

Abstract The evolutionary significance of lacertid colourations is relatively unexplored. However, several studies have demonstrated signalling by means of bright green colouration in Swedish Lacerta agilis males during the breeding season. Unfortunately, most of these studies have been based on human colour perception that differs in several ways from that of lizard. An important difference between human and lizard colour vision is the presence of an ultraviolet (UV) sensitive cone in lizards. The available evidence suggests that male sand lizards colorations do not reflect UV wavelengths, at least in Swedish populations. However, this study, based on objective (spectrophotometric) measur…