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Visual Communication In Anolis Lizards: Investigating The Visibility Of Signals Of Differing Color Against Complex Backgrounds, Carley Perez

Honors Theses

Lizards of the genus Anolis communicate through visual displays involving the opening and closing of an expandable flap of skin, called a dewlap, located on their throat. In some habitats up to ten species of Anolis are found in close proximity to one another. For a dewlap color to be effective an individual of the same species should be able to easily distinguish it from the dewlap color of other species located in the same habitat. We wanted to determine how different two colors must be in order to be reliably discriminated by an Anolis lizard. Lizards (Anolis sagrei) placed …