First Record of Ultraviolet Fluorescence in the Bent-Toed Gecko Cyrtodactylus Quadrivirgatus Taylor, 1962 (Gekkonidae: Sauria)

Herpetology Notes, volume 13: 211-212 (2020) (published online on 03 March 2020)

First record of ultraviolet fluorescence in the Bent-toed Gecko Cyrtodactylus quadrivirgatus Taylor, 1962 (Gekkonidae: Sauria)

Marina Mohd Top1,2,*, Chong Leong Puan3, Ming-Feng Chuang4, Siti N. Othman4, and Amaël Borzée5

Fluorescence is uncommon but widespread in some On 26 July 2019, we encountered a Four-striped groups, such as fish (Sparks et al., 2014), insects Bent-toed Gecko (Cyrtodactylus quadrivirgatus Taylor, (Olofsson et al., 2010; Marshall and Johnsen, 2017), 1962; identified using the identification key from and arachnids (Kloock et al., 2010; Gaffin et al., 2012). Das, 2015) during a field survey in Ayer Hitam Forest While fluorescence has been studied for over a century Reserve (3.0108°N, 101.6461°E), Selangor, Malaysia. in birds (Arnold et al., 2002) and scorpions (Stahnke, Upon observation under black light in situ (390–395 1972), it was first reported rather late in reptiles, in 1971 nm; Ultraviolet Blacklight Flashlight 51 LED, Escolite; (Hulse, 1971). Since then, it has been discovered in a Chicago, USA), we noticed fluorescence on top and variety of other tetrapods, including parrots (Hausmann lower margins of the head, and on the toe articulations et al., 2003), sea turtles (Gruber and Sparks, 2015), and amphibians (Taboada et al., 2017). The functional significance of fluorescence in animals is not fully understood. While bioluminescence is used by insects for communication (Lloyd, 1983) and UV biofluorescence is used by chameleons for mate signalling (Prötzel et al., 2018), the function of fluorescence in geckos remains unclear (Sloggett, 2018). However, gekkonids are expected to be able to see UV fluorescence because of an ultraviolet-sensitive visual pigment, such as demonstrated in Gekko gecko (Linnaeus, 1758) (Loew, 1994).

1 Centre of Foundation Studies for Agricultural Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia 2 Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. 3 Faculty of Forestry, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia; and Institute of Tropical Forestry and Forest Products (INTROP), Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. Figure 1. Adult Four-striped Bent-toed Gecko (Cyrtodactylus 4 Department of Life Science and Division of EcoScience, Ewha quadrivirgatus) under UV light (390–395 nm wavelength) in Womans University, Seoul, 03760, Republic of Korea. Ayer Hitam Forest Reserve, Malaysia. (A) Dorsolateral view. 5 Laboratory of Animal Behaviour and Conservation, College of (B) Ventral view. (C) Lateral view under traditional white Biology and the Environment, Nanjing Forestry University, light for comparison. The arrows indicate fluorescent areas on Nanjing, 210037, People’s Republic of China. head, jaws, and toe articulations. Photos by Amaël Borzée and * Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] Ming-Feng Chuang. 212 Marina Mohd Top et al. of the individual captured (Fig. 1). Prötzel, D., Heß, M., Scherz, M.D., Schwager, M., van’t Padje, The function of fluorescence in this species is A., Glaw, F. (2018): Widespread bone-based fluorescence in unknown and unlikely to be related to an anti-predator chameleons. Scientific Reports 8: 698. Sloggett, J.J. (2018): Field observations of putative bone-based mechanism, such as seen in butterflies (Olofsson et al., fluorescence in a gecko. Current Zoology 64: 319–320. 2010). Sloggett (2018) suggested that fluorescence in Sparks, J.S., Schelly, R.C., Smith, W.L., Davis, M.P., Tchernov, geckos would likely be bone-based and could not be D., Pieribone, V.A., Gruber, D.F. (2014): The covert world hidden as in butterflies, which close their wings when of fish biofluorescence: a phylogenetically widespread and at rest and open them to startle predators. It may have phenotypically variable phenomenon. PLoS One 9: e83259. the same function as in chameleons, related to mate Stahnke, H.L. (1972): UV light, a useful field tool. Bioscience 22: attraction (Prötzel et al., 2018). However, this would 604–607. suggest that predators, such as snakes, could also see Taboada, C., Brunetti, A.E., Pedron, F.N., Neto, F.C., Estrin, D.A., Bari, S.E., Chemes, L.B., Lopes, N.P., Lagorio, M.G., Faivovich, the individuals, despite the species’ cryptic colouration J. (2017): Naturally occurring fluorescence in frogs. Proceedings linked to predator avoidance when seen from the of the National Academy of Sciences 114: 3672–3677. human’s visible spectrum.

Acknowledgements. We thank the Faculty of Forestry and Sultan Idris Shah Forestry Education Centre (SISFEC) of Universiti Putra Malaysia for permission to conduct the field survey. Special thanks to all the staff at SISFEC and our colleagues for their support and contributions during the survey and preparation of this manuscript. We are grateful to K.S. Seshadri for his comments on an earlier version of this manuscript, and to M. Kieckbusch for the review.

References

Arnold, K.E., Owens, I.P., Marshall, N.J. (2002): Fluorescent signaling in parrots. Science 295: 92. Das, I. (2015): A Field Guide to the Reptiles of South-East Asia. London, United-Kingdom, Bloomsbury Publishing. Gaffin, D.D., Bumm, L.A., Taylor, M.S., Popokina, N.V., Mann, S. (2012): Scorpion fluorescence and reaction to light. Animal Behaviour 83: 429–436. Gruber, D.F., Sparks, J.S. (2015): First observation of fluorescence in marine turtles. American Museum Novitates 3845: 1–8. Hausmann, F., Arnold, K.E., Marshall, N.J., Owens, I.P. (2003): Ultraviolet signals in birds are special. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B, Biological Sciences 270: 61–67. Hulse, A.C. (1971): Fluorescence in Leptotyphlops humilis (Serpentes: Leptotyphlopidae). The Southwestern Naturalist 16: 123–124. Kloock, C.T., Kubli, A., Reynolds, R. (2010): Ultraviolet light detection: a function of scorpion fluorescence. Journal of Arachnology 38: 441–445. Lloyd, J.E. (1983): Bioluminescence and communication in insects. Annual Review of Entomology 28: 131–160. Loew, E.R. (1994): A third, ultraviolet-sensitive, visual pigment in the Tokay gecko (Gekko gekko). Vision Research 34: 1427– 1431. Marshall, J., Johnsen, S. (2017): Fluorescence as a means of colour signal enhancement. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Biological Sciences 372: 20160335. Olofsson, M., Vallin, A., Jakobsson, S., Wiklund, C. (2010): Marginal eyespots on butterfly wings deflect bird attacks Accepted by Hinrich Kaiser under low light intensities with UV wavelengths. PLoS One 5: e10798.