httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ni3QbKgesI
Last year Martha Muńoz posted on AA about odd behaviors of captive anoles.
Following recent posts about the production of “slugs” or infertile eggs, I thought the readers of AA might be interested in this short (low quality) video of an A. apletophallus female eating her infertile egg. I think this was a very rare event (only observed once – out of many females) and probably an artifact of being in captivity. Possibly the egg rolled off a leaf or branch and the female grabbed it thinking it was an insect. In the wild the infertile eggs would be consumed very quickly by any number of things – like ants or fungus.
Like others breeding anoles, I have thought a lot about the production of infertile eggs. Female A. apletophallus are egg factories; in the absence of sperm they will produce infertile eggs continuously. I have always thought this was strange – it seems like a waste of resources – why don’t they reabsorb or eat their infertile eggs. The female “knows” the egg is infertile – it is deposited with little or no shell and she does not bury it like a fertile egg. I presume hormones play an important role in governing this bury or do not bury behaviour. In the case of apleotphallus, all mature females have sperm and when they are relocated into captivity will produce fertile eggs. So I think it is fair to say that in nature they are never lacking sperm, so they will not produce infertile eggs often. Hence under normal circumstances there is no cost to producing these “slugs.”
- From Across the Pond: Anole Presentations at ESEB 2015 - August 19, 2015
- Panamanian Anole Population in Decline - February 15, 2015
- Twin embryos - April 13, 2013
Martha Muñoz
I have seen a female A. cybotes eat a fertile egg. Captivity makes anoles do strange things sometimes…
Rich Glor
Interesting video and observations. I don’t think we’ve ever seen an adult anole eat an infertile egg, but perhaps others from my lab can chime in if they have.
Do you have any insight on how long your females are able to produce fertile eggs after having lost access to males?
Jessica Stapley
The record for the longest time a female produced fertile eggs after a single mating was 245 days (~8 months) and she produced 27 eggs (she was mated in the lab). The record for the most eggs was 30 eggs over 198 days. In the latter case the female had mated in the field so it could have been more than this but I do not know when or how many times she mated.
Rich Glor
Wow. Very cool! Because our females very rarely produce fertile eggs outside the company of males I’m surprised that yours are so productive for so long after mating. Are they reproducing seasonally or year-round in your captive colony? Our A. distichus are quite seasonal.
Jessica Stapley
The lizards naturally reduce egg production in the dry season (Jan-March), but this most likely due to water/food stress. In the lab they will produce eggs all year round. The females are housed individually but they can see males and other females, so they are not in complete isolation. That said I don’t think they need males around showing off their dewlaps to maintain egg production – but that is just a hunch.