Comparison On Lizard Populations Between Two Geographic Regions In Terms Of Reproductive Output And Learning Behavior

Based on the aspects of reproductive output and learning behavior,this paper takes the Phrynocephalusprzewalskii belonging to Phrynocephalus genus and Agamidae family and the Eremias argus belonging to Eremias genus and Lacertidae family as the subjects of the study,so as to study the difference of lizard species between different geographical regions.The experimental animal collection was performed in the western part of Erenhot City,Xilin Gol League,Inner Mongolia（43.24 ° N,111.27 ° E,Altitude 1065 m）and on the eastern margin of the Kubuqi Desert in Erdos City,Inner Mongolia（40.21 ° N,111.12 ° E,Altitude 1042 m）.Pregnant female lizards were the main collection targets,and these two species of lizards are taken back to the laboratory to be kept separately according to different populations,the reproductive hatching and the maternal body-related data were measured,and the eggs produced were weighed,and the egg weight,the clutch size,the clutch weight and the relative clutch weight and other indicators were subject to statistics.After the larvae are hatched,the hatching day,the hatching rate,and the relative body data of the larvae were all subject to statistics.When the reproductive maternal bodies were fully recovered after birth and the larvae reached the age of the 10±1 days,the experiment of learning behavior was performed for the statistics of successful scorings,the time of successful entry and the number of errors;after the test was completed,a detailed measurement on the body data of the larvae was performed at the 15±1 days.1.Comparison of Phrynocephalus przewalskii between two geographical regions in terms of reproductive output.In the comparison of reproductive mother’s body data,the snout-vent length(F_1,29=10,P<0.01),postpartum maternal mass(F_1,29=5.329,P<0.05)and abdomen length(F_1,29=4.973,P<0.05)of the population of Ordos were significantly larger than those of Erenhot population,and were all positively correlated with the snout-vent length of the reproductive mothers.In the comparison of reproductive characteristics,there are significant differences in the egg mass(F_1,29=4.446,P<0.05)between these two geographic desert lizard populations,and the eggs of the Ordos population are significantly heavier than those of the Erenhot population,the clutch size(F_1,29=0.399,P=0.533),clutch mass(F_1,29=4.082,P=0.053),the relative clutch mass 1(F_1,29=0.063,P=0.804)didn’t show significant difference.the relative clutch mass 2(F_1,29=0.04,P=0.843),the difference was not significant;the clutch size,the clutch weight were positively correlated with the snout-vent length in both geographical regions,and they increased with the increase in the maternal head and body length,the while egg mass and relative clutch mass of these two geographical populations were independent of the snout-vent length of the reproductive mothers,and the correlation between the egg mass and the clutch size in these two geographic regions was significantly negative.The variation coefficient of the clutch size of Erenhot population was 0.302 and its variation coefficient of egg mass was 0.207,and those of Ordos population were 0.258 and 0.171 respectively,the variations of the former were all greater than those of the latter.In the aspects of hatching days and hatching rate,no significant difference was found in the lizards between these two geographic regions,the mean hatching day of Erenhot population was 36.52 d,the mean hatching days of Ordos population was 35.36 d,that means the hatching days（F1,53=1.770,P=0.189）of Erenhot population was longer than that of Ordos population;in the hatching rate（X2=2.488,P=0.778）,a total of 94 eggs（Erenhot: 44,Ordos: 50）of Phrynocephalus przewalskii were hatched: the successful hatching rate of erenhot was 61.36%,and the successful incubation rate of Ordos was 62%.Among them,Erenhot population’s deformity rate accounted for 3.7%,Ordos population’s deformity rate accounted for 9.7%.In the larval body data,Phrynocephalus przewalskii larvae（1 day）of Erenhot population showed smaller snout-vent length,body weight and tail length than those of the Ordos population,and there were significant differences in snout-vent length（F1,51=3.457,P=0.069）,body weight（F1,51=5.144,P<0.05）and tail length（F1,51=27.675,P<0.01）except for head and body length.There was no significant difference in snout-vent length（F1,51=2.930,P=0.093）in Phrynocephalus przewalskii larvae at the 15±1 days,but there were significant differences in terms of the tail length（F1,51=28.769,P<0.01）,head length（F1,51=18.357,P<0.01）,length of forelegs（F1,51 = 22.677,P<0.01）and length of hind limbs（F1,51=48.192,P <0.01）.2.Comparison of learning behaviors between two species of lizards in two geographical regions.In the aspect of successful escape scoring,there was no significant difference in terms of the geographical region between the adult Phrynocephalus przewalskii（F1,31=1.611,P=0.214）and Eremias argus（F1,28 =1.037,P=0.317）or between the Phrynocephalus przewalskii larvae（F1,30 =0.366,P=0.550）and Eremias argus larvae（F1,23=0.044,P=0.836）.In the aspect of the performance of learning behavior,the Erenhot desert lizards showed a poor learning behavior and other lizards showed acceptable learning behaviors.In the comparison of learning ability,it is found that there was a significant difference between the adult desert lizards in two geographical regions in terms of successful escape（X2=6.315,df=1,P<0.05）,there were no significant differences between these two geographical regions in the larvae of the Phrynocephalus przewalskii（X2=0.016,df=1,P=0.900）,the adult Eremia sargus（X2=0.752,df=1,P=0.386）and the Eremias argus larvae（X2 =0.015,df=1,P=0.903）,while the number of successful escapes firstly increased at the beginning but decreased in the later stage of the experiment.In the number of errors,two lizards（adults and larvae）showed no significant difference in the comparison of two geographical regions,but the overall number of errors showed a downward trend with the increase in the number of experiments.