SEXUAL DIMORPHISM IN Laudakia erythrogastra (SAURIA: AGAMIDAE) FROM KHORASAN RAZAVI PROVINCE, NORTHEASTERN IRAN* Hossein Aghili, 1 Nasrullah Rastegar-Pouyani, 2 Mehdi Rajabizadeh, 3 Haji Gholi Kami, 4 and Bahram H. Kiabi 1 Submitted April 11, 2009 To investigate patterns of sexual dimorphism in the topotypes of Laudakia erythrogastra, seven morphometric and seven meristic characters were examined in 21 specimens including nine males and 12 females, collected from Fariman in northeastern regions of the Iranian Plateau. Results show that males of Laudakia erythrogastra having more pronounced ornamentation and are darker in coloration than the females. As well, males bearing longer head and limbs with regard to their body compared to females. Sexual dimorphism in Laudakia erythro- gastra is more obvious than the other species of Laudakia in Iran which seems to be due to habitat specificity of this species. Keywords: Agamidae, Laudakia erythrogastra, sexual dimorphism, habitat specificity, Fariman, northeastern Iran. INTRODUCTION Sexual dimorphism (SD), defined as a phenotypic difference between males and females of a species, is a common phenomenon in animals including reptiles (Andersson, 1994). Morphological differences between the two sexes; however, have two aspects: size and shape. Sexual size dimorphism (SSD) describes the situ- ation in which the two sexes differ in measured values of certain morphological traits. (SSD) is common in rep- tiles (Stamps, 1993) and has been extensively described (Andersson, 1994). Lizards, in particular, provide the opportunity for comparative studies and are a good model to study the evolution of (SSD) because this group presents a remarkable variation in both direction and magnitude of (SSD) (Cox et al., 2003). Male and fe- male lizards may differ in many traits, such as color- ation, body shape and size. These differences have gen- erally been attributed to the effects of sexual selection (Andersson, 1994), but other mechanisms, such as eco- logical divergence and fecundity selection, offer alterna- tive explanations for sexual dimorphism (Shine, 1992; Olsson et al., 2002) The Khorasan agamid, Laudakia erythrogastra (Ni- kolsky, 1896) is narrowly distributed species occurring in northeastern Iran, southeastern Turkmenistan, north- ern Afghanistan north of the Central Massif and south through the mountain passes to Paghman (Anderson, 1999). The species was described by Nikolsky in 1896 from “Kalender abad” [now: Ghàlàndàr äbäd (35°36¢ N 59°56¢ E) in Khorasan Razavi Prov.] and “Ferimun” [now Fariman (35°42¢ N 59°50¢ E) in Khorasan Razavi Prov.] Little information is available on inter-population variation and habitat of Laudakia erythrogastra in Iran. Terentjev and Chernov (1949) stated that adult males were almost black on lower surface of body and neck with large light spots, while females were orange and brighter on tail. Anderson (1999) reported that some males, perhaps in breeding coloration were with black 1026-2296/2010/1701-0051 © 2010 Folium Publishing Company Russian Journal of Herpetology Vol. 17, No. 1, 2010, pp. 51 – 58 * Address correspondence and reprint requests to the address: Nasrullah Rastegar-Pouyani, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Razi University, 67149, Kermanshah, Iran; E-mail: nasrullah.r@gmail.com 1 Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Shahid Beheshti, Evin, Tehran, Iran. 2 Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Razi University, 67149, Kermanshah, Iran; E-mail: nasrullah.r@gmail.com 3 Department of Biodiversity, Institute of Environmental Science, International Center for Science, High Technology and Environ- mental Science, Kerman, Iran. 4 Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Agriculture Sciences and Natural Resources, Gorgan University, Golestan, Iran.