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).