Study On The Sexual Dimorphism Of Racerunners Lizard (Eremias Argus) And Reproductive Features Of The Two Geographical Populations

Life history is a record of a biological individual from birth to death of the whole life’s process, also known as life cycle, which was composed of biological breeding, growth, differentiation, reproduction, aging and death. Studying the growth and reproduction was the important essence of biological life history. The species of Racerunners belongs to reptiles lizard (Eremias argus), because they were in wide distribution and with habitat diversity, gender patterns, unique breeding behavior, and were oviparous, ectotherms, thus it maintains important biological significance to study their growth between the characters of genders and reproductive features in the both of different geographical populations. The following text represents the main results:1. We have measured the body weight, head length, head width, head height, snout-vent length, forelimb length, posterior length, abdomen length, tail length of Eremias argus, we study the sexual size dimorphism of Eremias argus, which were the juveniles, the immatures and the adults. It shows as following:(1) The sexual size dimorphism of juvenile Eremias argus between the sexes morphological were not significant differences; while the head length, head width, head height, forelimb length, posterior length and tail length, the sub-adult males maintained, were significantly larger than females, but the snout-vent length, body mass, abdomen length were not significant difference; Similar to the immature:head length, head width, head height, forelimb length, posterior length, tail length of adult males were longer than females, however the abdomen length was significantly smaller than females, while snout-vent length and body mass were not significant difference.(2) The relative length of the morphological characteristics were not significantly different in three age-phases of Eremias argus, while the relative length of the males’abdomen length in three age-phases basically was in equilibrium, but the females’showed an increasing trend; on the contrary, the relative length of the males’tail length showed an increasing trend in three age-phases, while the females’showed a decreasing trend. Furthermore the relative length of the males’head length, head width, head height, forelimb length and posterior length in three age-phases has a decreasing trend as the same as females’.(3) The relative length of limbs of adult and sub-adult Eremias argus were not significant differences, whereas the juveniles’relative length of limbs was significant different with immature and adults.(4) The relative length of limbs were no significant difference between males and females in three age-phases.2. We were study the reproductive features of Eremias argus from two geographical populations, which were main included egg mass, clutch mass, relative clutch mass, clutch size, postpartum maternal size, hatching period, hatching rate and juveniles morphological traits (hatched eggs mass, body mass, head length, snout-vent length, forelimbs length, posterior limbs length and tail length) of two geographical populations. It’s turned out that:(1) The postpartum females’snout-vent length and abdomen length of population from Erenhot were significantly less than the population of Ordos, while the postpartum maternal mass was not significantly different.(2) The egg mass, clutch mass and relative clutch mass of the population from Erenhot were significantly greater than the population of Ordos, then the clutch size was not significant difference,(3) The hatching time, hatching rate were respective 45 d,70.93% (Erenhot),44.78 d,73.52%(Ordos), hatching days and hatching rate were not significantly different between the two geographical populations.(4) Juveniles body mass, snout-vent length, head length, forelimbs length, posterior limbs length and tail length were significantly and positively correlated with the eggs mass. Erenhot of hatchling body mass was significantly greater than the Ordos, while the former’s forelimb length, posterior limbs length and tail length were significantly smaller than the latter, then the snout-vent length and head length were not significantly different between the two geographical populations.