University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Papers in Herpetology Papers in the Biological Sciences

1987 Alloparental Care in the Prairie Skink, Eumeces septentrionalis: A Case of Mistaken Identity? Louis A. Somma Florida State Collection of Arthropods, [email protected]

Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/biosciherpetology Part of the Behavior and Ethology Commons, and the Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons

Somma, Louis A., "Alloparental Care in the Prairie Skink, Eumeces septentrionalis: A Case of Mistaken Identity?" (1987). Papers in Herpetology. 12. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/biosciherpetology/12

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Papers in the Biological Sciences at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Papers in Herpetology by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. -- Nebraska Herpetological Newsletter 8(2)1 5- 8 (1987 )

~~IHi! %UU JkId, ~AL'~ -#/!~~: JI tau 1 ;f;(iJ~cJk4i{r.? ~51/ Joll1ma

Department of Zoo log y One of the attended 223 Bartram Hall clutches had 11 out of 18 Unive r sity of Florida eggs hatch successfully on Gainesville , FL 32611 July 14. This terrarium was adjacent to one which Alloparental care , or contained an unbrooded one individual caring for clutch . The unbrooded the eggs or young of clutch had 9 out of 11 another , ha s been eggs hatch on July 19 . documented for a variety The female in t he first of verte brate organisms clutch expressed some (Coyne & Sohn 1978; Frame parenta l behavior toward et a1. 1983; COllaty & her young for two days Karlin 1984) . In t h i s before ignoring t hem and a rticle I document an leaving the nest (Somma; In instance of alloparental prep.) . I also have care in the prairie skink , observed a brood of week­ Eumeces septentrionalis . old young (numbering 13) in a nest cavity with a During the summer of female in th e wi ld (July 1984, I had 18 captive 26 , 1984). The captive female I . septentrional is female had her youn g Iloused in a lab while r emoved from her t e rrarium conducting research for my on t he third day . On July ~IA Thesis on brooding 21 , this female escaped behav ior and egg mortality from her terrarium and {Somma 1985a, h; Somma & entered the adjacent one Fawcett In prep.). In with the unattended tllat study I had separate Ilatchlin gs . She was found plastic terraria arranged coiled around 5 of the adjacent to each other , hatchlings in the nest each containing a clutch ca vity . Tongue- flicks by of incubating skink eggs the female were directed (oviposited J~ n e 14- 23) . toward some of the young Nine clutches nad a skinks . brooding fe ma le and 9 had the parent remo ved. 5 The adult was removed her own. In the genus' and placed in her original Eumeces, there may not be terrarium. The next any selective pressure for morning she was again brooding females to found in the other disti~guish her progeny terrarium coiled around from t "hose of the hatchlings. She conspecifics, congenerics attemp ted to bite me when or possibly other lizard I removed her. This skink species. did not make any further attempts to escape her Acknowledgments terrarium for the duration of her captivity. I gratefully thank James D. Fawcett for his While "no known tutelage during the instances of female duration of my Masters Eumeces brooding the eggs studies at the Unive r sity or young for the purpose of Nebraska at Omaha, and of "helping" another for his continuing parent have been friendship. documented, there are records of multiple Literature Cited clutches being brooded by severa l females (Blanchard Blanchard, F.N . 1922. The 1922; Noble & Hason 1933; amphibians and McCauley 1939; Fitch reptiles of western 1954). These observ"ations Tennessee. Occ. Pap. are believed to re"present Mus. Zool. " Univ. a condition caused by th e Michigan (117) :'5"':'18. limited availability of next sites. Several Coyne, J.A. & J.J. -Sohn . stu~ies suggest that a 1 978 . Interspecific female Eumeces cannot brood care in fishes: distinguish any reciprical altruism differences between the or mistaken identity? eggs of her own clutch and Am. Nat. 112:447-450. those of conspecifics (Noble & ~Iason 1933; Somma Craig, J.L. 1980. Pair and In press). Eggs of the group breeding ground skink, Scincella behaviour of a common latera1e . also have been gallinule, the found mixed in a clutch of Pukeko . Anim. Behav. I. fasciatus eggs (Fitch 28:.593-603 • 1954). These were apparently brooded by the EmIen, S .T. 1 982. The female. evolution of helping. Am. Nat . 119:29-53. It seems likely to me ~ 1984. Cooperative that the prairie "skinks in ----'breeding in birds and this study had strong mammals . In: maternal instincts and Behavioral Ecology: could n o t distinguish the An Ev"olutionary nest of unattended Approach (eds. Krebs, hatchlings from those of 6 J.D. and N.B. tadorna. Anim. ·Dehav. Davies). Sinauer 30:199-202. Associates, Sunderland. Price, T., S. Hullington, & . P. Grant. 1983. Vitcll, II.S. 1954. Life Ilclping at the nest history and ecology in Darwin's finches of the five-lined as misdirected skiuk. Eumeccs parental care. Auk fn~ciatus. Univ. 100: 192-194. Kansas Publ. Mus. Nat. lIist. 8:1-156. Somma~ L.A. 1985a. Broo.ding behavior of Frame, L.1f., J.R. Nalcolm, the northern prairie G.W .. Frame & II. Van skink·, Eumeces Lawick. 1979. Social septentrionalis oq~anizal: . ion of septentrionalis African wild dogs. Z. (Baird), and its Tierpsychol. 50;225~ relationship to the 249. hyd~ic environment .of nes t substrat ~ . ··MA Cowaty , P.A. & A.A. Thesis, Univ. Karlin. 1984. Nebraska at Omaha, Multiple maternity Omaha. and Ilat ernity in single broods of _____ . 1985b. Egg hrooding apparently monagp­ in the · prairie skink, mous Eastern Eumeces nruebird. Behav. sepentrionalis , and Ecol. Sociobiol. its relationship to 15:91-95. the hydri~ environment of .the NcCaulcy, R.H., Jr. 1939 . nest substrate. IIL­ Differences in the SSAR Meet. Abst. young of Eumeces 1985 :78 . fascintus and Ellmeces laticeps. Copeia ___ . In press. Oophagous 1939:93-95. behavior in brooding prairie skinks , - , Noblc, G.K. & E.R. Mason. Eumeces -.. ,.' 1933. Experiments on septentriona l is. the brooding habits Herp. Rev. of the lizards Eumcces and ___ . In prepara·tion. Ophi s alJrus. Amer. Maternal core of .' - ~Ius. Hovit . (619): neonates in the 1-29. prairie ski nk, Eumeces Patterson, I.J., A. Gilboa septentrionali s .& D.J . Tozer. 1982. I~earing other people's youne: brood ,- -..::'; " ~ m!xing in the . :-;::--. SllC1dlick Tat\orna 7 (Scincidae), Errata (submitted) . _____ ' & J.D. Fawce tt. In The citation in the preparation. Drooding . first paragraph should r ead behaviour of the "( Coyne & Sohn 1978 ; Frame prairie skink , et al.nrpraig 1980; Emlen Eumeces 1982 . 1984 ; Patterson --et al--. septentrionali s , 1982 ; Price et al. 1983; and it s re lationship Gowa ty & Karlin 1984)". to t he hyd ric envir~nment of the nest subst rilte .

8