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115 results for “aposematism”
Data from: Multiple origins of sexual dichromatism and aposematism within large carpenter bees
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Data from: Differential predation drives the geographical divergence in multiple traits in aposematic frogs
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Data from: Diversification and convergence of aposematic phenotypes: truncated receptors and cellular arrangements mediate rapid evolution of coloration in harlequin poison frogs
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Data from: The role of predators in maintaining the geographic organization of aposematic signals
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Data from: Hybridization promotes color polymorphism in the aposematic harlequin poison frog, Oophaga histrionica
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Data from: An aposematic colour-polymorphic moth seen through the eyes of conspecifics and predators - sensitivity and colour discrimination in a tiger moth
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Data from: Temporal relationship between genetic and warning signal variation in the aposematic wood tiger moth (Parasemia plantaginis)
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Dataset for: Numbers, neighbours and hungry predators: what makes chemically defended aposematic prey susceptible to predation?
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Aposematic patterns shift continuously through the life of poison frogs
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Data from: Prey with hidden colour defences benefit from their similarity to aposematic signals
<p>Some camouflaged animals hide colour signals and display them only transiently. These hidden colour signals are often conspicuous and are used as a secondary defence to warn or startle predators (deimatic displays) and/or to confuse them (flash displays). The hidden signals used in these displays frequently resemble typical aposematic signals, so it is possible that prey with hidden signals have evolved to employ colour patterns of a form that predators have previously learned to associate with unprofitability. Here, we tested this hypothesis by conducting two experiments that examined the effect of predator avoidance learning on the efficacy of deimatic and flash displays. We found that the survival benefits of both deimatic and flash displays were substantially higher against educated predators than naïve ones. These findings help explain the phenological patterns we found in 1,568 macro-lepidopteran species on three continents: species with hidden signals tend to occur later in the season than species without hidden signals.</p>
Data from: Aposematism in the burying beetle? Dual function of anal fluid in parental care and chemical defense
Burying beetles (Nicrophorus vespilloides) bear distinctive and variable orange-black patterning on their elytra and produce an anal exudate from their abdomen when threatened. During breeding, the anal exudates contribute to the antimicrobial defense of the breeding resource. We investigated whether the anal exudates also provide a responsive chemical defense, which is advertised to potential avian predators by the beetle's orange and black elytral markings. We found that that the orange-black elytral markings of the burying beetle are highly conspicuous for avian predators against range of backgrounds, by using computer simulations. Using bioassays with wood ants, we also showed that the burying beetle's anal exudates are aversive to potential predators. From these results, and other evidence in the literature, we conclude that the evidence for aposematism in the burying beetle is as strong as the evidence for many other classically aposematic species, such as defended Hymenopterans, ladybirds, or poisonous frogs. Nevertheless, we also report unexpectedly high levels of individual variation in coloration and chemical defenses, as well as sex differences. We suggest that this variation might be partly due to conflicting selection pressures, particularly on the dual function of the exudates, and partly to nutritional differences in the developmental environment. The ecology of the burying beetles (Nicrophorus spp.) differs markedly from better-studied aposematic insects. This genus thus offers new potential for understanding the evolution of aposematism in general.
Data from: Coarse dark patterning functionally constrains adaptive shifts from aposematism to crypsis in strawberry poison frogs
Ecological specialization often requires tight co-evolution of several traits, which may constrain future evolutionary pathways and make species more prone to extinction. Aposematism and crypsis represent two specialized adaptations to avoid predation. We tested whether the combined effects of color and pattern on prey conspicuousness functionally constrain or facilitate shifts between these two adaptations. We combined data from 17 natural populations of Strawberry poison frogs, Oophaga pumilio with an experimental approach using digitalized images of frogs and chickens as predators. We show that bright coloration often co-occurs with coarse patterning among the natural populations. Dull green frogs with coarse patterning are rare in nature but in the experiment they were as easily detected as bright red frogs suggesting that this trait combination represent a transient evolutionary state towards aposematism. Hence, a gain of either bright color or coarse patterning leads to conspicuousness but a transition back to crypsis would be functionally constrained in populations with both bright color and coarse patterning by requiring simultaneous changes in two traits. Thus, populations (or species) signaling aposematism by conspicuous color should be less likely to face an evolutionary dead-end and more likely to radiate than populations with both conspicuous color and coarse patterning.
Data from: Distance-dependent pattern blending can camouflage salient aposematic signals
The effect of viewing distance on the perception of visual texture is well known: spatial frequencies higher than the resolution limit of an observer's visual system will be summed and perceived as a single combined colour. In animal defensive colour patterns, distance-dependent pattern blending may allow aposematic patterns, salient at close range, to match the background to distant observers. Indeed, recent research has indicated that reducing the distance from which a salient signal can be detected can increase survival over camouflage or conspicuous aposematism alone. We investigated whether the spatial frequency of conspicuous and cryptically coloured stripes affects the rate of avian predation. Our results are consistent with pattern blending acting to camouflage salient aposematic signals effectively at a distance. Experiments into the relative rate of avian predation on edible model caterpillars found that increasing spatial frequency (thinner stripes) increased survival. Similarly, visual modelling of avian predators showed that pattern blending increased the similarity between caterpillar and background. These results show how a colour pattern can be tuned to reveal or conceal different information at different distances, and produce tangible survival benefits.
Data from: Maternal effects and warning signal honesty in eggs and offspring of an aposematic ladybird beetle
1. The eggs of oviparous species are often subject to intense predation pressure. One parental strategy to deter predators is to produce eggs that are laced with noxious chemicals and are conspicuously coloured (i.e. aposematism). 2. Ladybird eggs are conspicuously coloured and contain alkaloids; these traits are believed to function in concert as visual signal and chemical defence, respectively, to deter predators. However, it remains unclear whether such aposematic signals reveal the strength (rather than simply the existence) of chemical defences. 3. Furthermore, additional functions of egg pigments and toxins could apply; in particular mothers might deposit such resources into eggs to aid the development of offspring, or to provide resources that could contribute to aposematic traits in offspring. 4. We bred wild-caught seven-spot ladybird beetles (Coccinella septempunctata) in the laboratory, and then measured relationships between egg colouration and toxin concentrations (i.e. the alkaloids precoccinelline and coccinelline). We also measured relationships between egg carotenoids and egg colouration, and between egg colouration and toxin levels, and the elytra colouration and toxin concentrations of offspring at eclosion for a subset of eggs that were allowed to develop. 5. Egg carotenoids predicted egg colour saturation. In turn egg colour saturation and hue positively predicted egg concentrations of precoccinelline. However, there were no significant relationships between egg coccinelline concentration and any measure of egg colouration. 6. In recently eclosed adults of both sexes elytra saturation was significantly explained by variation in egg saturation and hue. Finally, body concentrations of coccinelline were significantly explained by variation in elytra hue. 7. These results suggest that the colouration of C. septempunctata eggs is a reliable signal of the strength of chemical defences contained therein, but in addition, maternal investment of pigments and toxins into eggs may serve to influence the reliability of aposematic signalling in resultant offspring.
Data from: Why has transparency evolved in aposematic butterflies? insights from the largest radiation of aposematic butterflies, the Ithomiini
Defended species are often conspicuous and this is thought to be an honest signal of defences, i.e. more toxic prey are more conspicuous. Neotropical butterflies of the large Ithomiini tribe numerically dominate communities of chemically-defended butterflies and may thus drive the evolution of mimetic warning patterns. Although many species are brightly coloured, most are transparent to some degree. The evolution of transparency from a warningly coloured ancestor is puzzling as it is generally assumed to be involved in concealment. Here we show that transparent Ithomiini species are indeed less detectable by avian predators (i.e. concealment). Surprisingly, transparent species are not any less unpalatable, and may in fact be more unpalatable than opaque species, the latter spanning a larger range of unpalatability. We put forth various hypotheses to explain the evolution of weak aposematic signals in these butterflies and other cryptic defended prey. Our study is an important step in determining the selective pressures and constraints that regulate the interaction between conspicuousness and unpalatability.
Data from: Distance-dependent aposematism and camouflage in the cinnabar moth caterpillar (Tyria jacobaeae Erebidae)
Defended prey often use distinctive, conspicuous, colours to advertise their unprofitability to potential predators (aposematism). These warning signals are frequently made up of salient, high contrast, stripes which have been hypothesised to increase the speed and accuracy of predator avoidance learning. Limitations in predator visual acuity, however, mean that these patterns cannot be resolved when viewed from a distance, and adjacent patches of colour will blend together (pattern blending). We investigated how saliency changes at different viewing distances in the toxic and brightly coloured cinnabar moth caterpillar (Tyria jacobaeae). We found that although the caterpillars' orange-and-black stripes are highly salient at close-range, when viewed from a distance the colours blend together to match closely those of the background. Cinnabar caterpillars therefore produce a distance-dependent signal combining salient aposematism with targeted background matching camouflage, without necessarily compromising the size or saturation of their aposematic signal.
Data from: The fitness effects of a pale mutant in the aposematic seed bug Lygaeus simulans indicate pleiotropy between warning coloration and life history
Conspicuous warning colours that signal chemical or other defences are common in the natural world. For instance, such aposematic warning patterns of red-and-black or yellow-and-black are common among insect taxa, particularly in the order Hemiptera, often forming the basis of Batesian and/or Müllerian mimicry rings. In addition, it has been repeatedly noted that colour polymorphisms or mutants that influence pigmentation can show pleiotropy with other behavioural, physiological or life-history traits. Here we describe a pale mutant of the seed bug Lygaeus simulans that appeared in our lab population in 2012, which differs in colour to the wild-type bugs. Through multigenerational experimental crosses between wild-type and pale mutant L. simulans, we first show that the pale phenotype segregates as a single Mendelian locus, with the pale allele being recessive to the wild-type. Next, we show (1) that there is a large heterozygous advantage in terms of fecundity, (2) that pale females suffer reduced longevity, and (3) that pale males have increased body length compared to wild-type homozygotes. Our data therefore suggest that the colour locus is pleiotropic with a number of life-history traits, opening the door for a more complete genetic analysis of aposematic colouration in this species. In addition, this phenotype will be useful as a visible genetic marker, providing a tool for investigating sperm competition and other post-copulatory drivers of sexual selection in this species.
Data from: Phylogenetic comparative analysis supports aposematic colouration–body size association in millipede assassins (Hemiptera: Reduviidae: Ectrichodiinae)
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Data from: Coarse dark patterning functionally constrains adaptive shifts from aposematism to crypsis in strawberry poison frogs
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Data from: Distance-dependent pattern blending can camouflage salient aposematic signals
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