Species-Specific Seasonal Shifts in Reproductive Allocation in the Southern Grass Lizard, Takydromus sexlineatus (Lacertidae).

Simple Summary: We designed a common garden experiment to collect data on female reproductive traits from three populations of Takydromus sexlineatus, testing the hypothesis that geographically separated populations should share a species-specific pattern of seasonal shifts in reproductive allocation. Six traits differed among populations, with four of the six also differing among successive clutches. Females grew longer during the breeding season and produced more eggs in the first clutch than in the subsequent clutches; egg size was unchanged throughout the breeding season. After removing the influence of female size or postpartum mass we found that (1) postpartum body mass, clutch mass, and relative clutch mass were greater in the Wuzhishan population than in the Shaoguan and Zhaoqing populations; (2) egg size was greatest in the Wuzhishan population and smallest in the Zhaoqing population; and (3) clutch size was greatest in the Wuzhishan population and smallest in the Shaoguan population. Our data validate the hypothesis tested. We designed a common garden design to collect data on female reproductive traits from three populations of the southern grass lizard Takydromus sexlineatus, testing the hypothesis that a species-specific pattern of seasonal shifts in reproductive allocation should be shared by geographically separated populations. Of the seven examined traits, six differed among populations, with four of the six also differing among successive clutches. Females grew longer during the breeding season and produced more eggs in the first clutch than in the subsequent clutches; egg size was unchanged throughout the breeding season. After removing the influence of female size or postpartum body mass we found the following. First, postpartum body mass, clutch mass, and relative clutch mass were greater in the Wuzhishan population than in the Shaoguan and Zhaoqing populations. Second, egg size was greatest in the Wuzhishan population and smallest in the Zhaoqing population. Third, clutch size was greatest in the Wuzhishan population and smallest in the Shaoguan population. Females did not trade-off egg size against number within each population × clutch combination. Our study validates the hypothesis tested, supports the conventional view that reproductive output is highly linked to maternal body size in lizards, and follows the classic prediction that females with different amounts of resources to invest in reproduction should give priority to adjusting the total number rather than size of their offspring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]