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Incubation temperature modulates post-hatching thermoregulatory behavior in the Madagascar ground gecko, Paroedura pictus

Mark S. Blumberg^*, Sean J. Lewis and Greta Sokoloff

Program in Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
Present address: Department of Psychology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA

View larger version (79K): [in a new window]   Fig. 1. Infrared thermographs of a newly hatched Madagascar ground gecko Paroedura pictus exhibiting shuttling behavior. The subject is confined to a Plexiglas cylinder and chooses between a surface temperature of 16°C on the left (blue surface) and 41°C on the right (yellow surface). In this 2-min sequence, the hatchling begins on the cold side of the apparatus (A). In the next frame (B), it has crossed over to the hot side where it remains stationary and gains heat from the hot floor (C). Eventually, it begins to move again (D) and crosses back over to the cold side of the apparatus (E) where it gradually loses heat to the cold surface (F). As indicated, the labels `cold exit' and `hot exit' denote the frames preceding a crossover to the hot and cold side of the apparatus, respectively.

View larger version (10K): [in a new window]   Fig. 2. The effect of incubation temperature on (A) incubation time, (B) body length and (C) body mass of newly hatched Madagascar ground geckos Paroedura pictus. Body length and body mass were measured within two days of hatching. For all measurements, the number of subjects per group was 20 (at 23°C), 23 (at 26°C) and 24 (at 30°C). *Significant difference between adjacent points. Significantly different from the other two points.

View larger version (11K): [in a new window]   Fig. 3. The effect of incubation temperature on dorsal skin temperatures of newly hatched Madagascar ground geckos immediately prior to crossovers to the (A) cold (hot exit) and (B) hot (cold exit) sides of the apparatus. For cold exit temperatures, the number of subjects per group was 17 (at 23°C), 22 (at 26°C) and 21 (at 30°C); the respective numbers for hot exit temperatures were 15, 21, and 20. *Significant difference between adjacent points.

View larger version (23K): [in a new window]   Fig. 4. (A) Frequency distributions of dorsal skin temperatures for cold and hot exit temperatures based on the means and standard deviations averaged across hatchlings. Distributions are presented separately for hatchlings incubated at 23°C (blue), 26°C (green) and 30°C (red). (B) Transition probabilities calculated using the dual-limit stochastic model of Barber and Crawford (1977). The heating transition curves (solid lines) indicate the probability that a hatchling, behaving in a complex thermal environment, would move toward heat; the cooling transition curves (broken lines) indicate the probability that a hatchling would move away from heat. The point of intersection of the two curves indicates an equal likelihood of moving toward or away from heat. As shown most clearly in the insert, the dorsal skin temperature at which this equilibrium point occurs increases systematically with incubation temperature.