Independent influence of thermoregulatory cost on the lower and upper set-points of a heliothermic lizard.

•Moderate costs induced an investment trade-off between thermoregulation and Tb, and individual variation decreased with the increase of costs.•Lower average Tp values were observed in the trials where costs were high as a result of lower volunteer Tb's. Upper volunteer Tb did not varied.•Individual variation resulted in two main thermoregulatory patterns defined as "Relaxed thermoregulator" and "Precise thermoregulator".•Individual variation within the population may enable species to cope with habitat alterations and as well as toadjust to new environments.