Erroneous documentation (E): Report considered unsubstantiated due to 
inadequate information for a species normally lacking parental behavior. 
DISCUSSION 
Over 6140 extant species of lepidosaurian reptiles are currently 
recognized (Bellairs, 1986); of these, parental behavior has been reported for 
210 species. Only 148 species (82 lizards, 65 snakes, and Sphenodon) are 
represented by reliable documentation or approximately 2.4% of all 
lepidosaurians (Table III). These species represent 17 families, excluding 
the unsubstantiated documentation for the Hydrophiidae, Typhlopidae and the 
unidentified amphisbaenid family (Tables I, II, III). Parental behavior is 
common in Eumeces, Phelsuma, Uromastix, anguids, xantusiids, iguanines, 
oviparous boids, southeast-Asian elapids, oviparous viperids, Elaphe, 
Farancia, and Psammophylax (Tables I and II). In most species (96%) parental 
behavior is entirely maternal; however, paternal and biparental behavior have 
been confirmed (Table IV). 
The literature in this survey (Tables V and VI) demonstrates a paucity of 
experimentally obtained data on parental behavior in lepidosaurians (but see 
Noble and Mason, 1933; Hutchison et al., 1966; Vinegar et al., 1970; Van 
Mierop and Barnard, 1976a, 1978; Hasegawa, 1985, Somma, 1985b; [Orlov], 1986; 
Ellis and Chappell, 1987; York and Burghardt, 1988; Graves, 1989; Somma and 
Fawcett, 1989; Vitt and Cooper, 1989; Guillette et al., in review). The 
majority of the literature is descriptive or anecdotal, and the adaptive 
functions of this life history trait remain largely conjectural. Furthermore, 
the only ecological/evolutionary analysis devoted solely to parental behavior 
in reptiles is provided by Shine (1988; see Lillywhite, 1988). 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 
Obtaining the literature for this survey would have been impossible 
without the superlative library skills of J. Mundell, L. Valentine and the 
late M. Covault (Interlibrary Loan Department, University Library, University 
of Nebraska at Omaha), D. Beaubien, B. Gilbert and K. Harmon (Interlibrary 
Loan Department, Marston Science Library, University of Florida), and S. 
Tergas (Interlibrary Loan Department, Main Library West, University of 
Florida). I am also grateful those who provided or informed me of important 
references; they are E. J. Bredin, R. L. Burke, D. B. Carter, B. Clark, P. A. 
Cochran, H. Ehmann, D. Ferraro, L. A. Fitzgerald, J. S. Foster, H. W. Greene, 
L. J. Guillette, Jr., A. Hagedorn, T. Heaton-Jones, K. Horikoshi, T. R. 
Johnson, G. Kattan, J. W. Lang, J. F. Lokke, S. A. Minton, Jr., L. D. Moehn, 
J. C. Murphy, L. Nico, J. G. Robinson, H. M. Smith, N. M. Somma, S. F. Somma, 
S. Stewart and S. J. Walsh. I wish to thank all of the individuals who 
allowed me to cite their unpublished observations as personal communications. 
I am indebted to D. Haney, A. Hensley and K. Horikoshi for translating 
the French, German and Japanese literature, respectively. I sincerely thank 
