The persistence of colour polymorphism (CP) within a given population is generally associated with the coexistence of alternative reproductive strategies, each one involving specific trade-offs among behavioural, morphological, physiological, and other life histories. Common wall lizard (Podarcis muralis), is a medium-sized diurnal lizard, showing CP in three main colours (yellow, white, and red) on throat and belly, and a morph-specific pattern for both immunocompetence and seasonal variation of T levels. Yellow males show low stamina with high plasma T levels at the beginning of the season, while white males show high stamina with a higher plasma T levels at the end of the season. We hypothesised the presence of two strategies: a risky one, characterised by high aggressiveness played by yellow-morph, and a conservative one by white morph with low aggressiveness. Thus, we tested the aggressive response to conspecifics of yellow and white morphs using a mirror inserted into their cage, mimicking an intrusion of a stranger in their territories, throughout the breeding season (from April to July, 117 trials). We considered three types of aggressive response, with different levels of aggressiveness: (i) bite against the image reflected in the mirror, (ii) seconds spent by the individuals into the half mirrored cage, and (iii) number of times the lizard entered the half mirrored cage. We also considered the number of tongue flicking as explorative behaviour variable. All lizards were tested after a period of acclimatisation to the captivity conditions. Results demonstrate that yellow males showed a higher aggressive response in the early season and a decrease aggressive response towards the end, whereas white males showed an opposite pattern.

中文翻译：

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多态蜥蜴攻击行为的形态特异性季节性变化

给定种群中颜色多态性 (CP) 的持续存在通常与替代生殖策略的共存有关，每种策略都涉及行为、形态、生理和其他生活史之间的特定权衡。普通壁蜥 (Podarcis muralis) 是一种中型昼行性蜥蜴，在喉咙和腹部显示三种主要颜色（黄色、白色和红色）的 CP，以及免疫能力和 T 水平季节性变化的变形特异性模式. 黄色雄性在赛季开始时表现出低耐力和高血浆 T 水平，而白人雄性在赛季结束时表现出高耐力和更高的血浆 T 水平。我们假设存在两种策略：一种风险策略，其特点是黄色变形具有高攻击性，和一个保守的白色变种，攻击性低。因此，在整个繁殖季节（从 4 月到 7 月，117 次试验），我们使用插入笼子的镜子测试了对黄色和白色变种同种动物的攻击性反应，模仿陌生人入侵其领土。我们考虑了三种攻击性反应，具有不同程度的攻击性：（i）咬住镜子中反射的图像，（ii）个体进入半镜笼所花费的秒数，以及（iii）蜥蜴进入的次数半镜笼。我们还将舌头轻弹的次数视为探索行为变量。在适应圈养条件一段时间后，对所有蜥蜴进行测试。