PARASITES AND THE EVOLUTION OF EXTRAVAGANT MALE CHARACTERS - ANOLIS LIZARDS ON CARIBBEAN ISLANDS AS A TEST OF THE HAMILTON-ZUK HYPOTHESIS

Anolis lizards from Puerto Rico (five species from one site), Curacao and Aruba in the southern Caribbean (2 populations), and 22 population s from 14 islands in the eastern Caribbean were surveyed for blood par asites (two species of Plasmodium and haemogregarines). Literature rec ords for gut helminths from nine of these populations were added to th e data set. Dorsal body color and dewlap color of males were also obse rved and classified into objective classes with no subjective view of showiness. These data were used to test the among-species prediction o f the Hamilton-Zuk hypothesis which states that species harboring more harmful parasites over their evolutionary history will be more likely to evolve extravagant sexually dimorphic traits. Critics have noted i mportant shortcomings in previous tests of the prediction; here we cor rected for these errors. Parasite loads (prevalence and number of spec ies) and dorsal and dewlap color varied substantially among the popula tions sampled. However, there was no association of parasite load with color either in a broad analysis or when correcting for phylogenetic relationships among the lizard species.