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The lizard with five* sexes*

Behold the common side-blotched lizard (Uta stansburiana) (picture source).

In most animal species, male and female individual (and any combinations of such, for hermaphroditism and situational sex shift are common) tend to have slightly different incentives, and thus to follow different reproductive strategies. (See flatworm penis knifefights for a particularly charming example of that.)

This rather unassuming lizard, 5 or 6 cm long and dweller of the deserts of southwestern USA and northern Mexico, takes it one step further. The males and females of this species have each split into different genetically-determined morphs, so that you could say that Uta stansburiana is a species with five sexes, or possibly two sexes and five genders.

Male side-blotched lizards come in three main forms, conveniently color-coded thanks to the bright bands on their throats. (Image from here, ultimately from the original paper) Throat color, and all associated phenotype and behavior, is genetically determined, highly inheritable, and controlled by the concentration of testosterone in blood.

Orange-throated males, the highest-testosterone morph are the largest and most aggressive. They defend large territories, and gather all females they found in a harem that they protect fiercely. Blue-throated males have a lower concentration of testosterone; they guard smaller territories and only mate with a single female, with whom they spend most of the time. Yellow-throated males have the least testosterone of all; they closely resemble adult females, hold no territory at all, and prefer to mate sneakily with unattended females.

(Females are also divided in two morphs: orange-throated ones produce more, smaller eggs, while yellow-throated ones produce fewer, larger eggs. The latter are favored when population density is higher. However, the differences are not so dramatic as between male morphs.)

Do you see the logic? Rock crushes scissors, but is enveloped by paper. Paper envelop rock, but is cut by scissors. Scissors cut paper, but are crushed by rock.

Oranges are the strongest morph; they can take all the territory they want. They can easily beat up the weaker Blues, chase them away, and add their mates to their own harem. However, they can only pay so much attention to each individual female in the harem. Consequently, they are easily cuckolded by Yellows, who show up in an Orange’s harem as soon as he’s looking away.

Yellows can easily pretend to be females to enter an Orange’s harem, and mate with all the actual females in the surroundings. However, this trick doesn’t work with a Blue, who has only one mate that he knows well and carefully keeps track of.

Blues pay enough attention to their one mate to never be fooled by Yellow infiltrators. However, they are easy prey for the bigger and stronger Oranges.

According to the original 1996 paper, Blues were dominant in 1991, but crashed in the following years as Oranges seized their territories. Oranges peaked in 1992, only to lose their gains to Yellow infiltrators in 1993. By 1995, the more guarded Blues had taken over once again. All three morphs thrive in their own niche, and the circle goes around forever, each genotype unable to dominate both competitors. Only in some isolated populations the (I presume) accidental loss of one morph has allowed one to take over completely.

I think it would be neat to see something like this in a speculative sophont.

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Brown Pelican & Osprey | Mark Smith

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I've got a bit of an odd question. How should I feel when I see a picture of a large sea animal like a manta ray or a whale with a bunch of remoras? My instinct seems to always want me to feel uncomfortable about it but i'm just not sure how bad remoras are for their carriers, if at all. What's the best way to think about pics with remoras? Thank you!

Not a weird question at all, and you can rest easy! Remoras are friends! Most of them are completely neutral, eating the “scraps” of their host’s meal as they cruise along, although some species are actively beneficial and clean the host of parasites. I know it can look a little creepy, but I hope now you smile when you see a remora!

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@elodieunderglass Massive continuity of...goslings?

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Thirsty wunk

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this duck LOVES pink drink

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Almost forgot to mention the current #1 most idiotic post ever made about my life is a guy projecting his political anger onto artwork of a barnacle.

See, my spouse and I both love marine parasite biology, and the barnacle Sacculina is a favorite of both ours for its crazy physiology.

This is a crustacean (a barnacle!) that reduces itself down to just a *tissue network,* like a fungus, in the body of another crustacean (a crab, in most species)...it even sends tendrils into the crab's eyes! But the crab shows no sign of ever noticing. It just kind of has something like a new extra nervous system that happens to belong to another different animal.

I've written about and drawn it, and rev has it as an avatar, because it's cool. Because it's one of the most otherworldly animals out there!

But see, this group of parasites can also "feminize" male crab hosts, and there's one chud incel obsessed with his conspiracy theory that, despite my leftist e-rage getting me banned from a dozen communities before we ever met, my spouse somehow brainwashed me to be a soyboy liberal feminazi one day. You already get it I'm sure, you get the bombshell coded message he thought he saw in a drawing of a bug right

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ewww

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can someone please tell me what the fuck I just saw

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that’s a whole man.

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My frogs have formed a polite queue for the aphids I gave then

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You can do whatever