| Steppe toad-headed lizard(Phrynocephalus frontalis) widely distributed in the grasslands and semi-desert regions at the northern of Yin Mountain in Inner Mongolia of China. In order to learn the influencing factors of population density, the diets of autumn and the sexual dimorphism of steppe toad-headed lizards, I worked at Kubuqi desert in Ordos of China and the main results are as follows:(1) By mark-recapture method, I investigated the population density of steppe toad-headed lizards in three plots. In the low coverage Herbal Ephedrae plots, nature plots and the high coverage Yangcai plots the population density of steppe toad-headed lizards is descending. The statistics in different season shows that, the steppe toad-headed lizard’s density was maximum in spring and minimum in summer. Though the study of vegetation we found that, it was negative correlation between the population density and vegetation cover, and it was also in vegetation height.(2) We studied the food habits of steppe toad-headed lizards using stomach dissection. And we found2classes12orders and27families in its stomach, including insecta, arachnids and some plant debris. The steppe toad-headed lizards prefers insects which account for95.8%of all the food items. The lizards preys mainly on the insects of formicidae (39.23%), the second was aphidinae (19.24%), and the third was coleoptera (17.71%). The percent similarity of food index was great between sexes and the food diversity was great in males than those in females. The IFD and RTN in different ages was the greatest in adults and the lowest in juveniles. In the diet of steppe toad-headed lizard, the pest was dominant.(3) Morphological traits was measured to study sexual dimorphism of steppe toad-headed lizards, it shows that snout vent length (SVL) was differed between sexes, with males being the larger sex. Males also attained a longer tail, larger head and shorter abdomen than females of the same SVL. |
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