Stowaways: Lizards in Shipments of Grapes Arriving in UK

Stories of stowaway spiders and snakes in imported fruit often make it into the newspapers but a report in a recent Herpetological Bulletin was remarkable. Over a five-week period in 2020, eight shipment of grapes from the Abruzzo region of Italy were found to contain 29 stowaway lizards, identified as Italian Wall Lizards, Podarcis siculus (or Lacerta sicula* in old money). The grapes had all arrived in UK by sea and the lizards were found at four distribution centres in England.

The stowaway lizards when housed in vivaria fed readily on grapes but ignored mango, persimmon and banana. It would seem that the lizards were feeding in bunches of grapes when they were picked and promptly shipped to British consumers. The authors wonder if it being autumn the lizards feed on grapes as small invertebrate numbers decrease. The sugar content (around 16% of wet weight) alone could well fuel these lizards and be converted into fat stores for the winter.

Some populations of the Italian Wall Lizard, incidentally, are known to eat fruit when invertebrate prey is abundant but that fascinating story will have to wait. In the meantime I should remind you it is October one year later. If planning to take a traditional bunch of grapes on a visit to a sick friend or elderly relative it may be advisable to check for stowaways even though some of us would prefer a lizard to a grape (unless fermented and in liquid form).

This Italian Wall Lizard was in the wild--in Krka National Park, Croatia
Photographed in 2010

Clemens DJ, Allain SJR. 2001. 2021. An unusually high number of Italian wall lizards Podarcis siculus campestris entering Great Britain as stowaways. Herpetological Bulletin 156, 42. 

*The ludicrous changing of the ending of the specific name depends on whether the name of the genus, Podarcis, is considered to be be masculine or feminine in Latin; it seems the masculine supporters hold sway. Just imagine the confusion in indexing and searching. That is the sort of thing that makes other scientists look askance at taxonomists.