Skip to main content
Fig. 4 | Zoological Letters

Fig. 4

From: Long-term monitoring reveals invariant clutch size and unequal reproductive costs between sexes in a subtropical lacertid lizard

Fig. 4

Monthly population pyramid and sex ratio in the Takydromus viridipunctatus population, taking from the mean of the eight-year capture data during 2006–2013. The majority of neonates begin to hatch in August, and reach the highest proportion of the population from September to December. In the meanwhile, some juveniles gradually reach the size of the adults since September, leading to the coexistence of two mature cohorts and forms a bimodal distribution of adult sizes from September to March. After June and July, the adults gradually die out, and the annual cycle repeats. At the beginning of breeding season in May, the population size of females outnumbered males, leading to the sex ratio (male/females) smaller than 1.0. However, the female-biased mortality during the breeding season leads to the decrease of females and increase of sex ratio. From October through April, the population becomes male-biased. However, penetration from juveniles to adults adjusts the sex ratio, and the annual cycle repeats. Asterisks showed the significance of sex ratio by using Chi-square test (*: p < 0.05, **:p < 0.01, ***:p < 0.0001)

Back to article page