Data Analysis
All statistical analyses were done using SAS version 9.4 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA). Data were log-transformed to linearize relationships between dependent variables and SVL. We compared overall growth rates between years and between sexes by using proc GLM to regress growth rate versus the earliest SVL measurement of the year for each lizard, with year and sex as covariates. We calculated body condition separately in June and in July as the residual of log mass regressed on log SVL using measurements taken in the first and last weeks of the interval defined above. To analyze effects of mite load on growth rate, we removed the effects of body size, sex, and year on growth rate and mite load by computing residuals from separate regression analyses of growth rate versus SVL and mite load versus SVL, with sex and year as main effects. We then regressed residual variation in growth rate or body condition versus residual variation in mite load. We analyzed effects of residual mite loads on residual overall growth rates separately for June and July because of the substantial difference in environmental mite exposure between the two months and because mite loads become higher on yearling males than on females in the first two weeks of July (Pollock and John-Alder, 2020).