Reproductive characteristics of Darevskia daghestanica (Reptilia, Lacertidae) in Intra-Mountain Dagestan

The paper presents the results of studying the reproductive biology of Darevskia daghestanica in the valleys of Khzanor and Kitlyarta rivers (Tsunta district, Republic of Dagestan, Republic of Dagestan). Adult females were caught in the II–III decades of May 2021. In the following, the animals were kept singly in a laboratory. Lizards laid eggs from the third decade of May to the second decade of June. The body length of breeding females was 43.95–56.20 mm. Each clutch contained from 1 to 5 eggs with a length of 6.05‒14.47 mm, a width of 4.28‒7.30 mm and a weight of 0.10‒0.40 g. Incubation in artificial conditions lasted 36–51 days. The body length of young lizards emerging from eggs was 20.24‒27.52 mm, and the mass was 0.20‒0.42 g. The length of eggs in a clutch negatively correlated with the fertility of females, and also statistically significantly differed in clutches with different number of eggs. The authors conclude that D. daghestanica is similar to other representatives of the Darevskia (caucasica) complex, as well as to lizards from the Darevskia (praticola) complex in terms of reproductive phenology, size of breeding animals, fertility and the size of offspring.