I need your help finding some obscure references to reptile
mutualisms. I am a graduate student working on an independent research project
involving reptile mutualisms. Here I have defined a reptile mutualism as any
interaction involving a turtle, crocodilian, lizard, snake, or Sphenodon that
benefits another organism, whether it be a plant or an animal. With this in
mind I grouped my findings so far into 4 categories including pollination, seed
dispersal, cleaning, gut symbionts, and “other.”
A pollination mutualism would include any reptile that is
involved in transport of pollen from one plant to another while it gains a food
source, and at the same time increases the plant’s ability to reproduce. One
example of this is the lizard, teiradugesii (Lacertidae) drinking nectar in
Musschiaaurea (Campanulaceae) (Elvers, 1977). A similar type of mutualism,
involving plant reproduction includes seed dispersal. This involves a reptile
consuming a fruit, traveling some distance and defecating seeds, still intact
and viable. One example of this can be seen in the Florida Box turtle and the
fruits of Thrinaxmorrissii, Serenoarepens, and Byrsonimalucida (Hong, 2003).
It was found that the seeds of these plants were dispersed several hundred
meters from where they were ingested and grew successfully. A well known
cleaning mutualism is that of the Green Sea turtle Cheloniamaydas and
Thalassomaduperrey, the Hawaiian saddleback wrasse (Zamzow, n.d). The Green Sea
turtle’s carapace and plastron are cleaned by the wrasse that gets a meal by
ingesting the algae and other small invertebrates living on the turtle.
This is an eclectic field, and many examples are likely to be
buried in gray literature or otherwise hard to find. I am asking for your help
finding all the obscure examples. If you know any mutualisms of reptiles that
may fall into these categories or more importantly, if you have any “out of the
ordinary” mutualisms, I would very much appreciate to hear about it so I can
include it in my research publication.
I would like as much information as possible regarding the
specific interaction to include in my publication. If you can provide me with
where you have seen it recorded or cited that is great, but if not, I would
still like to hear about it. Send me anything you’ve got!
Thank you in advance for your help
Kayleigh Erazmus
[email protected]
References
Elvers, I. (1977).Flower-visiting lizards on Madeira. Notulae Botanicae. 130
231 – 234;
Hong, L., Platt, S., & Borg, C. (2003). Seed Dispersal by the Florida Box
Turtle (Terrapene carolinabauri) in Pine Rockland Forests of the Lower Florida
Keys, United States. Plant Animal Interactions. 539-546.
Zamzow, J. (n.d). Cleaning Symbioses Between Hawaiian Reef Fishes and Green Sea
Turtles, Cheloniamydas. Proceedings of the 18th International
Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation
