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Cuadernos de herpetología

versión On-line ISSN 1852-5768

Cuad. herpetol. vol.27 no.1 San Salvador de Jujuy mayo 2013

 

NOTA

Aggregative behaviour in the fossorial lizard Amphisbaena darwinii (Squamata, Amphisbaenidae)

 

Claudio Borteiro1, Francisco Kolenc1, José Manuel Verdes2

1 Sección Herpetología, Museo Nacional de Historia Natural de Montevideo, 25 de Mayo 582, Montevideo, Uruguay.
2 Área Biofísica, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay.

Recibida: 20/08/12
Revisada: 28/08/12

Aceptada: 03/09/12

 

Amphisbaena is a species-rich genus widely distributed in the Neotropics, from Middle America to central-eastern Argentina and Uruguay (Gans, 2005). The natural history of these fossorial Squamata has been scarcely studied, although several species are common in varied biomes. One of these poorly known forms is Amphisbaena darwinii Duméril & Bibron 1839 although being widely distributed in southern and central Uruguay (Gans, 1966). This species is a common inhabitant of urban and suburban areas in this country, including gardens and backyards where it can be easily found under rocks, rotten logs, and a varied kind of human-made refuges (pers. obs.). We present herein observations on A. darwinii made from 2008 to 2011 as part of herpetofaunal inventories in southern Uruguay. Specimens of Amphisbaena darwinii were found under stones or abandoned pieces of concrete and metallic sheets in some natural and urban areas, see Table 1. Refuges under stone or concrete cover and those under metallic materials were of approximately 0.15 to 0.20 m2 and 0.50 m2 respectively. We found apparently solitary individuals in most observations (9/16). However, in approximately 40% of the encounters (6/16) we detected more than one individual together in the same refuge, being adults, juveniles, or both. On one occasion we observed a group of seven individuals composed by an adult male, two adult females and four juveniles. Other combinations found were two juveniles, an adult male and a juvenile, and an adult male plus two adult females; see also Table 1. We never recorded more than one adult male at the same refuge. In these associations, specimens were very close to each other, sometimes with their bodies side by side or one above the other/s (Fig. 1).

Table 1. Field observational data on Amphisbaena darwinii in southern Uruguay. Abbreviations: a, adult; f, female; j, juvenile; m, male.


Figure 1. Group of Amphisbaena darwinii from Facultad de Agronomía, Montevideo, Uruguay (June 6, 2010); photograph taken immediately after exposing the refuge.

An interesting point of our observations is the tolerance of adults to the presence of young. Total lengths of four juveniles found in April 2010 that are shown in Figure 1 ranged from 95 to 121 mm (measurements made on digital photographs using ImageJ 1.45 software, freely available at http://rsb.info.nih.gov/ij/). Similarly, the juvenile observed along with an adult male at Cabo Polonio in August 2011, measured 110 mm. These juveniles are slightly larger than the January newborns reported by Carreira and Baletta (2006; 68-85 mm, n = 3), which is compatible with a normal growth for a few months after birth. We do not know whether adult-juvenile associations in A. darwinii are of parent-offspring nature, neither if they correspond to parental care behaviour.

The occurrence of parental care in amphisbaenians was previously suggested by Berg (1898). He found two adult females of A. heterozonata underground, each one along with fertile eggs containing embryos in advanced stages of development and hypothesized that these females were nest guarding. Gallardo (1977) also reported in this species adults of unspecified sex being close to eggs and hatchlings. He also observed an adult male and female of A. heterozonata very close to each other but speculated with an association to mating season. The present note is to our knowledge, the first report of aggregative behaviour in amphisbaenians of the New World. The few observations we made preclude us from further analysis. Previously, Martín et al. (2011) found that the species Trogonophis wiegmanni (Amphisbaenia, Trogonophiidae) of the Chafarinas Islands in northern Africa exhibit social aggregations. Based on a large sample of observations they concluded that aggregations of this amphisbaenian are not random, and thus correspond to social behaviour. They only observed pairs of individuals of this fossorial species under stones, either a male and a female, juveniles or a juvenile with a male or a female but not adults of the same sex. On the contrary, we found adult females being together. The available data on the aggregative behaviour of amphisbaenids although scarce, is suggestive of a rich field for the study of social interactions in these interesting and secretive lizards. Particularly, the occurrence of communal nesting and parental care in Amphisbaena deserve further investigation.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are grateful to José Martín (Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Madrid) and Christian Burchard (Deutsches Museum Archiv) for kindly providing bibliography; Ricardo Montero made a critical review of a previous version of the manuscript; Mauricio Kolenc provided the observation at Villa del Cerro and Melani Nava assisted in the lab; Cristina Ma-chado helped with translation from German. ANII/SNI gave financial support. Collection permits were provided by División Fauna-MGAP.

LITERATURE CITED

1. Berg, C. 1898. Ueber die Eiablage, die Bruptflege und die Nahrung von Amphisbaena darwinii. Verhandlungen Der Gesellschaft Deutscher Naturforscher Und Ärzte (Leipzig) 69: 164-165.         [ Links ]

2. Carreira, S. & Baletta, S. 2006. Amphisbaena darwinii darwinii. Reproduction. Herpetological Review 37: 82-83.         [ Links ]

3. Gallardo, J.M. 1977. Reptiles de los alrededores de Buenos Aires. EUDEBA, Buenos Aires.         [ Links ]

4. Gans, C. 1966. Studies on amphisbaenids (Amphisbaenia, Reptilia) 3. The small species from southern South America commonly identified as Amphisbaena darwini. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 134: 185-260.         [ Links ]

5. Gans, C. 2005. Checklist and bibliography of the Amphisbaenia of the world. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 289: 1-130.         [ Links ]

6. Martín, J.; Polo-Cavia, N.; Gonzalo, A.; López, P. & Civantos, E. 2011. Social aggregation behaviour in the North African amphisbaenian Trogonophis wiegmanni. African Journal of Herpetology 60: 171-176.         [ Links ]