O. G. Dely szerk.: Vertebrata Hungarica 21. (Budapest, 1982)
Daravskii, I. S. ; Kupriyanova, L. A.: Rare males in parthenogenetic lizard Lacerta armeniaca Méhely 69-76. o.
VERTEBRATA HUNGARICA TOM. XXI. 1982 p. 69-75 Rare males in parthenogenetic lizard Lacerta armeniaca Méhely* By I. S. DAREVSKIÏ & L. A. KUPRIYANOVA Abstract: It is known that karyotypes of parthenogenetic female and male Lacerta armeniac a are similar. This implies that the above males are most likely the results of hormonal inversion. A recently collected male L. armeniac a has also proved to be a diploid individual. This is supported by cytophotometrical measurement of the DNA content of somatic cells in both this male and the bisexual (control) male of L. portschinski i Kessler, as well as by haploid number of bivalents at metaphase I. The DNA content of spermatids in the two males corresponds with the haploid level, and the presence of haploid spermatids argues for normal meiosis. Histological studies supported the above conclusions. The male L. armeniac a appeared to be fertile. Some evidence has been provided in the literature concerning the rare occurrence of fertile males in populations of some unisexual lizard species. For the Caucasian rock-lizards of the family Lacertidae, this phenomenon was originally observed by examining dead embryos obtained from eggs of unisexual species of lizards (L. armeniac a and L. dahl i) that hatched in captivity (DAREVSKY 1966). These findings allowed a conclusion that in rare occurrence such males were able to complete their embryonal development to become adults. Indeed, by examining our collections and specially searching in nature we succeeded in finding some adult males for two of the four species of Lacert a known to be unisexual - L. armeniac a and L. dahli. Our previous paper (DAREVSKY et al. 1978) reported results of morphological, cytological and chromosomal analysis of two males of L. armeniac a. The external appearance of both of the males did not differ from that of female L. armeniac a except for the size of body and head. One male had two well-developed testes, the other one appeared to be an intersex with a testis to the left and an "ovotestis" to the right. We believe that the occurrence of intersexes is not so rare a phenomenon in lacertid lizards. According to illustrations provided by LANTZ (1923) and DOBROVOLSKA (1964), males of L. saxicol a and of L. dahl i seemed also to be intersexes, since they had testis on their left side anatomically and on the right side the former had ovary and the latter had apparently "ovotestis". Karyological analysis of both the male and the intersex of L. armeniac a has shown that they have the same number of chromosomes as females of L. armeniac a but the former displays in addition to the one found in females another heterom orphie pair of chromosomes, probably that * Paper presented by L.A. KUPRIYANOVA at the First Herpetological Conference of the Socialist Countries on the 26th August, 1981 in Budapest.
