PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Thompson, Asher
AU  - Kapsanaki, Vassiliki
AU  - Liwanag, Heather E. M.
AU  - Pafilis, Panayiotis
AU  - Wang, Ian J.
AU  - Brock, Kinsey M.
TI  - Some like it hotter: differential thermal preferences among lizard color morphs
AID  - 10.1101/2022.11.11.516149
DP  - 2022 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2022.11.11.516149
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/11/14/2022.11.11.516149.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/11/14/2022.11.11.516149.full
AB  - Temperature rules the lives of ectotherms. To perform basic biological functions, ectotherms must make behavioral adjustments to keep their body temperatures near a preferred temperature (Tpref). Many color polymorphic lizards are active thermoregulators and exhibit morph differences in traits related to thermoregulation, such as color, body size, and microhabitat use. The Aegean wall lizard, Podarcis erhardii, is a heliothermic lizard with orange, white, and yellow color morphs that differ in size, behavior, and microhabitat use. Here, we tested whether P. erhardii color morphs from the same population from Naxos island, Greece, differ in Tpref. We hypothesized that orange morphs would prefer lower temperatures than white and yellow morphs because orange morphs are often found on cooler substrates and in microhabitats with more vegetation cover. We obtained Tpref for 95 individuals using laboratory thermal gradient experiments of wild-caught lizards and found that orange morphs do, indeed, prefer significantly cooler temperatures, regardless of body size differences. Average orange morph Tpref was 2.3 ºC lower than average white and yellow morph Tpref. Our results add support to the idea that P. erhardii color morphs have multivariate alternative phenotypes and present the possibility that thermally heterogeneous environments play a role in the maintenance of color polymorphism in this species.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.