Lipophilic compounds in femoral secretions of male collared lizards, Crotaphytus bicinctores (Iguania, Crotaphytidae)

Abstract

Abstract In many lizards, chemical compounds from the femoral gland secretions are used in intraspecific communication, but most studies describing these chemicals are for lizard species included in the Scleroglossa clade, whereas lizards within the Iguanian clade have been much less studied, probably because these lizards were considered to rely more on visual cues. However, many iguanian lizards have abundant femoral secretions and are able of chemosensory conspecific recognition, which might be based on compounds secreted by femoral glands. By using GC–MS analyses, we found 58 lipophilic compounds in femoral gland secretions of male Great Basin collared lizard, Crotaphytus bicinctores (Iguania, Crotaphytidae). Main compounds were steroids (mainly two triunsaturated steroids and cholesterol), carboxylic acids (mainly hexadecanoic acid), waxy esters of long chain fatty acids, alcohols (mainly hexadecanol), aldehydes and other minor compounds. We compared these compounds with those found in other lizard species and discussed the potential signaling function of some compounds and how the xeric habitat of this lizard could have conditioned the composition of secretions.