The Herpetological Journal

pp.145-150

Authors: José A. Díaz

Abstract: The thermal dependence of predation success in the Mediterranean lacertid lizard Psammodromus algirus was studied using two types of prey (winged and wingless flies) that differed in their ability to escape predation at all T_bs (body temperatures) tested (25-27°C, 29- 32°C, and 34-37°C). Both number of failures and handling time decreased significantly at higher T_bs, and capture success was much higher for wingless flies; in fact, low T_bs were associated with a significant increase in capture success only in the case of winged flies. At low T_bs, winged flies could be efficiently seized by lizards only if pursued from a short distance. The attack distance was therefore larger for the less mobile (and less detectable) wingless flies at low T_bs, which suggests a trade-off between attack distance and capture success under conditions of impaired locomotor performance. Results of this study show that the escape abilities of prey are crucial to evaluate the effects of temperature on the performance of reptiles as predators.