OCCLUSION OF THE PARIETAL EYE INDUCES A TRANSIENT WAVELENGTH-DEPENDENT SHIFT IN LIZARD THERMOREGULATORY SET POINTS

Thermoregulatory set points-i.e., the body temperatures at which heat- seeking or cooling behavior are initiated-of the lacertid lizard Podar cis muralis were measured by infrared thermography before and after co vering the parietal eye with light filters with different cutoff point s. The results show that shielding the parietal eye results in a trans ient alteration of thermoregulatory set points; this effect is wavelen gth-dependent. Mean heating rates, bask and forage durations were not affected by the shielding of the parietal eye with any of the filters used, (C) 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.