Body size, age and sexual dimorphism in the genus Salamandra. A study of the Balkan species (Amphibia, Urodela, Salamandridae) M. L. Kalezic, G. Dzukic, A. Djorovic & I. Aleksic Kalezic, M. L., G. Dzukic, A. Djorovic & I. Aleksic (2000): Body size, age and sexual dimorphism in the genus Salamandra. A study of the Balkan species (Am-phibia, Urodela, Salamandridae). -Spixiana 23/3: 283-292 We studied two in many respect different Balkan Salamander species (Salaman-dra atra and S. salamandra) in order to characterise their sexual size differences, as well as the age structure, correlations between age and morphometric traits, and survival rate of adult females and males. On the ground of morphometrics, in the samples of S. salamandra a number of statishcally significant intersex differences was found between morphometric traits related with over-all size relations, feeding and locomotion abilities, with a marked population effect. However, genders of S. atra were much more alike. In both species, female-male differences in life span and timing of sexual maturity appeared to be negligible, while females had non-sigiTificantly higher mortality rate than males. Kalezic, M. L., A. Djorovic, Institute of Zoology, Faculty of Biology, Studentski trg 11, 11000 Beograd, Yugoslavia G. Dzukic, I. Aleksic, Institute for Biological Research Sinisa Stankovici, 29 Novembra 142, 11000 Beograd, Yugoslavia Introduction The importance of body size in ecology, life history, and reproductive fitness has been widely acknowl-edged for years (e.g. Fairbairn 1997). Thus, the patterns of interspecific Variation in body size are expected to reflect patterns of adaptive divergence, which is true not only for the mean size of the species, but also for the sizes of each sex. It is a commonplace in batrachology that females grow larger than males in most taxa, i.e. these taxa exibit female-biased sexual size dimorphism (hereafter abbreviated to SSD) (e.g. Shine 1979, Duellman & Trueb 1986, Halliday & Tejedo 1995). However, many amphibian groups still remain to be explored in this respect more carefully. The European Salamanders of the genus Salamandra, especially the two species inhabiting the Balkan Peninsula: the fire Salamander (Salamandra salamandra) and the alpine Salamander (Salamandra atra) are among them. Highly polytypic S. salamandra is the most widely distributed species among the fire Salamanders species group (S. salamandra, S. corsica, S. algira and S. infraimmaculata). It has a mostly west Palaearctic distribution: from southwest France, through central Europe and the Balkan Peninsula to the Black Sea (see Klewen 1991, Veith 1994, Griffiths 1996). The ränge of the alpine Salamander is much smaller (the Alps and the Dinaridian mountains), and so far only three subspecies have been described. These two Salamander species appeared to be different in many other respects. The alpine Salamander can be found only in cool and dump mountainous localities, in the Balkan at an altitude above 1.500 m a.s.I, mostly above the free line. On the contrary, the fire Salamander is encountered in much more mesophilic climate providing shade and moisture. 283
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