摘要
Sexual selection often leads to evolution of conspicuous signals,raising the chances of attracting not only potential mates,but also predators.In lacertid lizards,ultraviolet(UV)-blue spots on flanks and shoulders represent such a trait.Some level of correlation between male and female ornamen-tation is also known to exist.Therefore,the phenotype of females may change in the absence of sexual selection.We tested this hypothesis on a complex of parthenogenetic and bisexual lizards of the genus Darevskia.We evaluated area,counts,and chromatic properties(UV opponency,sat-uration)of UV-blue spots and compared the values between the clones and their bisexual progeni-tor species.We found a fair heterogeneity between the parthenogenetic species,but no general tendency toward higher crypsis or conspicuousness.Values of the parthenogens were not signifi-cantly different from the values of sexual females.A possible explanation is that the changes in se-lective forces associated with parthenogenetic reproduction are too small to affect the resulting pattern of selective pressures on the studied traits,or that the phenotypes of the parthenogens re-sult from the unique combination of parental genomes and are conserved by clonal reproduction.
