Do colour traits signal individual quality in the lizard Podarcis siculus?

Colour variation is widespread among lizard species and has been interpreted as an adaptive compromise between conflicting selective pressures arising from antipredatory and thermoregulatory requirements and sexual selection. In many species colour is used in social signalling and may serve as an honest signal of individual quality. Studies on several species have shown that characteristics of colour may be related to dominance status, aggression and immune response. We studied aspects of colour (e.g. UV and blue chroma of the blue lateral spot and throat colour) in two populations of Podarcis siculus in Italy and investigated if they were correlated to other individual traits that are related to fitness. To this end we measured the SVL, body mass, body condition and the immune response with the delayed cutaneous hypersensitivity (DCH) test. We also assessed the level of sexual dichromatism of the two populations. Preliminary results suggest that certain colour traits, like UV chroma, may signal aspects of individual quality in Podarcis siculus.