Decoding the dewlap: multiple signals in females and males of a gliding lizard

What is it about?

The biological world is endowed with ample examples of eye-catchy behaviours. Such fancy behaviours, when meant for information exchange, are called signals. Due to major biological paradigms and historical research bias, elaborate traits and signals have been studied primarily in males. It's also true for an arboreal lizard species endemic to India that glides. Indian gliding lizards (Draco dussumeri) possess a characteristic bright yellow-coloured throat fan or dewlap. It's longer in males than females. Older studies suggest its use in males for communication purposes in mating, but nothing much about females. In this study, we were interested to find out how females were using the dewlap. We found that females engaged in various signalling behaviours involving not only their dewlaps but also their tails and other postural displays. Few of these signals seem to be utilised to interact with other females, while some were performed primarily in the presence of males. This suggests females are potentially using them for communication purposes. Interestingly, though the signalling diversity of females was similar to males, certain signals were being performed in different social contexts than males, suggesting their different function in the sexes. Therefore, going ahead, it is imperative to ask such a question in females as well to get a complete understanding of function and development of complex behaviours.

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Photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash

Photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash