REDUCED TAIL REGENERATION IN THE COMMON LIZARD, LACERTA-VIVIPARA, PARASITIZED BY BLOOD PARASITES

1. Many lizards will lose their tail through autotomy as an antipredat or device even though there must be significant costs during tail rege neration. 2. Parasites are energetically costly to the host, and may r educe the rate of cell regeneration. The relation between the presence of haemogregarines (phylum Sporozoa) and the rate of tail regeneratio n in the Common Lizard Lacerta vivipara (Jacquin) was examined. 3. Exp erimentally induced autotomy in parasitized lizards resulted in a sign ificantly reduced rate of tail regeneration compared with non-parasiti zed lizards. On the ether hand, tail loss was not associated with an a bnormal increase of parasite load, suggesting that the physiological s tress (induced by tail loss) did not cause a decrease in parasite defe nce.