Frugivory in polychrotid lizards: effects of body size

As more data have become available on lizard diets in the past few decades, researchers have stressed the importance of lizards as pollinators and seed dispersers. Whereas large body size has been traditionally put forward as a major biological factor allowing herbivory and frugivory in lizards, a recent review of frugivory and seed dispersal by lizards showed that frugivory might be considered to be a typical island phenomenon, independent of body size. Here we show that frugivory is correlated with lizard body size among a group of syntopic Anolis species in Jamaica, with larger species eating more fruit. Additionally, the size of the fruits consumed is significantly related to lizard body size. Multiple regression analyses show that this is largely a pure body size effect as head shape or residual bite force are uncorrelated to overall fruit size. Moreover, we demonstrate that among polychrotid (Anolis-like) lizards in general, those that consume fruit are on average larger than those that do not. Lizards from the mainland were not significantly different in body size from island species. We thus suggest that fruit consumption in polychrotid lizards is mediated by large body size whether living on islands or not.