(Vitt and Blackburn 1983)"The skink Mabuya heathi ovulates between October and January and carries embryos for nearly a year before giving birth between September and November"
Sperm Storage:
(Greene 110)"In such species, female lizards store sperm for extended periods of time. Sperm storage allows a female to reproduce without locating a male for mating. It might also facilitate founding of new populations in rare species (Cuellar 1966a). In one such gecko, Christinus marmoratus, mating actually follows egg laying (Greer 1989; King 1977; King and hayman 1978). Sperm storrage also sets the stage for sperm competition, a phenomenon not yet demonstrated in lizards but one that is vertainly possibly."
Fecundity and Egg/Offspring size
Remember when Xyla wasn't eating:
(Greene 110)"Female incestment in reproduction reduces energy available for growth, maintenance, and fat storage. In most lizards, gravid females are wary and cryptic; living off stored lipids, they forgo feeding and hide untill after their eggs have been deposited."
Size:
(Greene 111)"Although clutch volume or litter wight (a measure of instantaneous reproductive incestment) varies greatly among lizard species - ranging from as little as 4-5 percent of body weight to as much as 40-50 percent (Vitt and Prive 1982)-- within single species it is more of lee constant. A eidely foraging Cnemidophorus might have a low clutch volume, whereas a sit-and-wait foraging Phrynosoma may have a large clutch volume, but the ratio of clutch mass to body mass (called relative clutch mass) stays the same within each species. Ratios of clutch or litter weight to female body weight are strongly correlated with various energetic measures (Ballinger and Clark 1973; Tinkle and Hadley 1975; Vitt 1978) and have often been used as crude indices of a female's instaneous investment in current reproduction. Relative clutch mass is sometimes equated with the elusive notion of "reproductive effort" (Vitt and Congdon 978; Vitt and Price 1982).
Suprisingly few reproductive studies on lizards provide data necessary to determine exactly what causes the trade-off between egg number and offspring size. estimationg reproductive effort requires examintation of energy invested in reproduction within the context of a lizard's complete energy budget. A relatively constant clutch mass can be divided into many small offspring or a few large offspring (Pianka 97oa, 1976, 1992; Pianka and Parker 1975a) Because for most lizards studied offspring size is constant over time, we can conclude that evolution has favored some "optimal offspring size" for each species or population. When resources are abundant, moreover, natural selection will favor production of more offspring , even if individual offspring are smaller as a consequense. Under these conditions, competition for food among offspring is low; all can feed at mximal rates, grow, and reach sexual maturity rapidly."
(Greene 114)"Even if the genetic component is ignored, not all offspring are equvalent. Profent produced late in a growing season often have a lower probability of reaching adulthood than thosed produced earlier, hence they contribute less to enhancing parental fitness. Likewise, larger offspring cost more to produce, but they are also "worth more." How much should a parent devote to any single progent? For a fixed amount of reproductive effort, average fitness of individual offspring varies incersely with the total number produced. One extreme would be to invest everything in a single very large but extremely fit progeny-- a tactic adopted by the skinks Typhlosaurus gariepensis and Tiliqua rugosa."
My favorite is #6, love those wide bands!