Phenotypic variability
We found significant differences between populations that confirmed the
results of previous studies (see Table 2): lizards from the lowland
population were smaller, had relatively longer legs, and tended to have
more femoral pores than those from the montane population; in addition,
they never presented tick infestation, despite adult ticks being present
in their habitat (Table 2). Sexual coloration data were especially
scarce from males sampled in this study (few colored males with very
weak colorations), and as a consequence differences between populations
could not be analyzed. When we only considered lizards from Navacerrada,
we found that males had more ticks (F1,18 = 10.85, p =
0.004) and that only the largest males could develop a sexual coloration
(F1,8 = 42.17, p < 0.001; Fig. 1). In
addition, we detected that, after controlling for the effect of the
number of femoral pores (an estimate of each male’s investment in
chemical signaling) on tick load (r = 0.733, p < 0.001),
uncolored males tended to have more ticks than colored ones (ANCOVA;
number of pores: F1,7 = 7.54, p = 0.029; color [as
factor]: F1,7 = 3.93, p = 0.088).