Phyllomedusa - 7(1), September 2008 3 Olfactory recognition of terrestrial shelters in female Northern Spectacled Salamanders Salamandrina perspicillata (Caudata, Salamandridae) Antonio Romano 1 and Antonio Ruggiero Dipartimento di Biologia, Università degli studi di Roma “Tor Vergata”, Via della Ricerca Scientifica, 00133 Rome, Italy. 1 Present address: Via Creta 6, 04100 Latina (LT), Italy. E-mail: antonioromano71@tele2.it. Received 11 February 2008. Accepted 11 April 2008. Distributed September 2008. Phyllomedusa 7(1):3-10, 2008 © 2008 Departamento de Ciências Biológicas - ESALQ - USP ISSN 1519-1397 Abstract Olfactory recognition of terrestrial shelters in female Northern Spectacled Salamanders Salamandrina perspicillata (Caudata, Salamandridae). Chemical cues are used as ubiquitous markers of individual, group, kinship, and species identity. Northern Spectacled Salamander (Salamandrina perspicillata) is a semi-terrestrial and elusive species. Females can be found in water bodies just in the spawning season but spend most of their life, as well as males do, in terrestrial shelters such as cracks, crevices and under stones to reduce the risks of dehydration. We have investigated whether, in reproductive females, animal’s own and conspecific chemical cues play a role in the shelter choice. We performed unforced “two-choice system” tests in order to study the behavioural response of salamanders to scent marks. For each test, the choice between two artificial shelters (plastic tubes) was offered to each focal indi- vidual. Data were analyzed using the binomial distribution. Our results show that Salamandrina use the sense of smell in the terrestrial shelter choice as animals (i) were capable to discriminate between a tube previously used by itself and a unused one (P<0.001) and (ii) preferred a tube previously marked by another female in the place of an unused one (P<0.05). However discrimination between individual’s own odour and that of a conspecific one was not significant (P>0.05). We suggest that attraction towards conspecific smells could favour a gregarious behaviour in winter refuges. Keywords: Caudata, Salamandridae, Salamandrina perspicillata, olfactory recognition, terrestrial shelters, Central Italy. Riassunto Riconoscimento olfattivo dei rifugi terrestri nelle femmine di Salamandrina dagli occhiali settentrionale Salamandrina perspicillata (Caudata, Salamandridae). Le percezioni olfattive sono ampiamente usate nel mondo animale per discriminare tra individui, gruppi, consanguinei e tra specie. La Salamandrina dagli occhiali settentrionale (Salamandrina perspicillata) è una specie semi terrestre e dal compor- brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk provided by Cadernos Espinosanos (E-Journal)