Rigid shells enhance survival of gekkotan eggs.

Abstract

The majority of lizards and snakes produce permeable parchment-shelled eggs that require high moisture conditions for successful embryonic development. One clade of gekkotan lizards is an exception; females produce relatively impermeable rigid-shelled eggs that normally incubate successfully under low moisture conditions. I tested the hypothesis that the rigid-shell increases egg survival during incubation, but only under low moisture conditions. To test this hypothesis, I incubated rigid-shelled eggs of Chondrodactylus turneri under low and under high moisture conditions. Eggs were incubated with parchment-shelled eggs of Eublepharis macularius to insure that incubation conditions were suitable for parchment-shelled eggs. Chondrodactylus turneri eggs had very high survival (>90%) when they were incubated under low moisture conditions. In contrast, eggs incubated under high moisture conditions had low survival overall, and lower survival than those of the parchment-shelled eggs of E. macularius. Mortality of C. turneri and E. macularius eggs incubated under high moisture conditions was the result of fungal infection, a common source of egg mortality for squamates under laboratory and field conditions. These observations document high survival of rigid-shelled eggs under low moisture conditions because eggs escape from fungal infection. Highly mineralized rigid shells also make egg survival independent of moisture availability and may also provide protection from small invertebrates in nature. Enhanced egg survival could thus compensate for the low reproductive output of gekkotans that produce rigid-shelled eggs.