275 research outputs found
Distance-dependent aposematism and camouflage in the cinnabar moth caterpillar (Tyria jacobaeae, Erebidae)
Aposematism:balancing salience and camouflage
Aposematic signals are often characterized by high conspicuousness. Larger and brighter signals reinforce avoidance learning, distinguish defended from palatable prey and are more easily memorized by predators. Conspicuous signalling, however, has costs: encounter rates with naive, specialized or nutritionally stressed predators are likely to increase. It has been suggested that intermediate levels of aposematic conspicuousness can evolve to balance deterrence and detectability, especially for moderately defended species. The effectiveness of such signals, however, has not yet been experimentally tested under field conditions. We used dough caterpillar-like baits to test whether reduced levels of aposematic conspicuousness can have survival benefits when predated by wild birds in natural conditions. Our results suggest that, when controlling for the number and intensity of internal contrast boundaries (stripes), a reduced-conspicuousness aposematic pattern can have a survival advantage over more conspicuous signals, as well as cryptic colours. Furthermore, we find a survival benefit from the addition of internal contrast for both high and low levels of conspicuousness. This adds ecological validity to evolutionary models of aposematic saliency and the evolution of honest signalling
Distance-dependent defensive coloration in the poison frog <i>Dendrobates tinctorius</i>, Dendrobatidae
Significance
Poison dart frogs are well known for their deadly toxins and bright colors; they are a classic example of warning coloration. However, conspicuousness is not the only consideration; defensive coloration must be effective against a diverse predator community with a variety of different visual systems, and variable knowledge of prey defenses and motivation to attack. We found that the bright colors of
Dendrobates tinctorius
are highly salient at close-range but blend together to match the background when viewed from a distance.
D. tinctorius
combines aposematism and camouflage without necessarily compromising the efficacy of either strategy, producing bright colors while reducing encounters with predators. These data highlight the importance of incorporating viewing distance and pattern distribution into studies of signal design.
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Elevated arousal at time of decision-making is not the arbiter of risk avoidance in chickens
The somatic marker hypothesis proposes that humans recall previously experienced physiological responses to aid decision-making under uncertainty. However, little is known about the mechanisms used by non-human animals to integrate risk perception with predicted gains and losses. We monitored the behaviour and physiology of chickens when the choice between a high-gain (large food quantity), high-risk (1 in 4 probability of receiving an air-puff) option (HGRAP) or a low-gain (small food quantity), no-risk (of an air-puff) (LGNAP) option. We assessed when arousal increased by considering different stages of the decision-making process (baseline, viewing, anticipation, reward periods) and investigated whether autonomic responses influenced choice outcome both immediately and in the subsequent trial. Chickens were faster to choose and their heart-rate significantly increased between the viewing and anticipation (post-decision, pre-outcome) periods when selecting the HGRAP option. This suggests that they responded physiologically to the impending risk. Additionally, arousal was greater following a HGRAP choice that resulted in an air-puff, but this did not deter chickens from subsequently choosing HGRAP. In contrast to human studies, we did not find evidence that somatic markers were activated during the viewing period, suggesting that arousal is not a good measure of avoidance in non-human animals
Conspicuous male coloration impairs survival against avian predators in Aegean wall lizards, Podarcis erhardii.
This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.1650Animal coloration is strikingly diverse in nature. Within-species color variation can arise through local adaptation for camouflage, sexual dimorphism and conspicuous sexual signals, which often have conflicting effects on survival. Here, we tested whether color variation between two island populations of Aegean wall lizards (Podarcis erhardii) is due to sexual dimorphism and differential survival of individuals varying in appearance. On both islands, we measured attack rates by wild avian predators on clay models matching the coloration of real male and female P. erhardii from each island population, modeled to avian predator vision. Avian predator attack rates differed among model treatments, although only on one island. Male-colored models, which were more conspicuous against their experimental backgrounds to avian predators, were accordingly detected and attacked more frequently by birds than less conspicuous female-colored models. This suggests that female coloration has evolved primarily under selection for camouflage, whereas sexually competing males exhibit costly conspicuous coloration. Unexpectedly, there was no difference in avian attack frequency between local and non-local model types. This may have arisen if the models did not resemble lizard coloration with sufficient precision, or if real lizards behaviorally choose backgrounds that improve camouflage. Overall, these results show that sexually dimorphic coloration can affect the risk of predator attacks, indicating that color variation within a species can be caused by interactions between natural and sexual selection. However, more work is needed to determine how these findings depend on the island environment that each population inhabits.This work was supported by a Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council studentship, Magdalene College, Cambridge and the British Herpetological Society (K.L.A.M), and a Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and David Philips Research Fellowship (grant number BB/G022887/1) to M.S
Camouflage Effects of Various Colour-Marking Morphs against Different Microhabitat Backgrounds in a Polymorphic Pygmy Grasshopper Tetrix japonica
Colour-marking polymorphism is widely distributed among cryptic species. To account for the adaptive significance of such polymorphisms, several hypotheses have been proposed to date. Although these hypotheses argue over the degree of camouflage effects of marking morphs (and the interactions between morphs and their microhabitat backgrounds), as far as we know, most empirical evidence has been provided under unnatural conditions (i.e., using artificial prey).Tetrix japonica, a pygmy grasshopper, is highly polymorphic in colour-markings and occurs in both sand and grass microhabitats. Even within a microhabitat, T. japonica is highly polymorphic. Using humans as dummy predators and printed photographs in which various morphs of grasshoppers were placed against different backgrounds, we addressed three questions to test the neutral, background heterogeneity, and differential crypsis hypotheses in four marking-type morphs: 1) do the morphs differ in the degree of crypsis in each microhabitat, 2) are different morphs most cryptic in specific backgrounds of the microhabitats, and 3) does the morph frequency reflect the degree of crypsis?The degree of camouflage differed among the four morphs; therefore, the neutral hypothesis was rejected. Furthermore, the order of camouflage advantage among morphs differed depending on the two types of backgrounds (sand and grass), although the grass background consistently provided greater camouflage effects. Thus, based on our results, we could not reject the background heterogeneity hypothesis. Under field conditions, the more cryptic morphs comprised a minority of the population. Overall, our results demonstrate that the different morphs were not equivalent in the degree of crypsis, but the degree of camouflage of the morphs was not consistent with the morph frequency. These findings suggest that trade-offs exist between the camouflage benefit of body colouration and other fitness components, providing a better understanding of the adaptive significance of colour-markings and presumably supporting the differential crypsis hypothesis
Markov models for fMRI correlation structure: is brain functional connectivity small world, or decomposable into networks?
Correlations in the signal observed via functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
(fMRI), are expected to reveal the interactions in the underlying neural
populations through hemodynamic response. In particular, they highlight
distributed set of mutually correlated regions that correspond to brain
networks related to different cognitive functions. Yet graph-theoretical
studies of neural connections give a different picture: that of a highly
integrated system with small-world properties: local clustering but with short
pathways across the complete structure. We examine the conditional independence
properties of the fMRI signal, i.e. its Markov structure, to find realistic
assumptions on the connectivity structure that are required to explain the
observed functional connectivity. In particular we seek a decomposition of the
Markov structure into segregated functional networks using decomposable graphs:
a set of strongly-connected and partially overlapping cliques. We introduce a
new method to efficiently extract such cliques on a large, strongly-connected
graph. We compare methods learning different graph structures from functional
connectivity by testing the goodness of fit of the model they learn on new
data. We find that summarizing the structure as strongly-connected networks can
give a good description only for very large and overlapping networks. These
results highlight that Markov models are good tools to identify the structure
of brain connectivity from fMRI signals, but for this purpose they must reflect
the small-world properties of the underlying neural systems
Phylogenetic Codivergence Supports Coevolution of Mimetic Heliconius Butterflies
The unpalatable and warning-patterned butterflies _Heliconius erato_ and _Heliconius melpomene_ provide the best studied example of mutualistic Müllerian mimicry, thought – but rarely demonstrated – to promote coevolution. Some of the strongest available evidence for coevolution comes from phylogenetic codivergence, the parallel divergence of ecologically associated lineages. Early evolutionary reconstructions suggested codivergence between mimetic populations of _H. erato_ and _H. melpomene_, and this was initially hailed as the most striking known case of coevolution. However, subsequent molecular phylogenetic analyses found discrepancies in phylogenetic branching patterns and timing (topological and temporal incongruence) that argued against codivergence. We present the first explicit cophylogenetic test of codivergence between mimetic populations of _H. erato_ and _H. melpomene_, and re-examine the timing of these radiations. We find statistically significant topological congruence between multilocus coalescent population phylogenies of _H. erato_ and _H. melpomene_, supporting repeated codivergence of mimetic populations. Divergence time estimates, based on a Bayesian coalescent model, suggest that the evolutionary radiations of _H. erato_ and _H. melpomene_ occurred over the same time period, and are compatible with a series of temporally congruent codivergence events. This evidence supports a history of reciprocal coevolution between Müllerian co-mimics characterised by phylogenetic codivergence and parallel phenotypic change
The density-matrix renormalization group
The density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG) is a numerical algorithm for
the efficient truncation of the Hilbert space of low-dimensional strongly
correlated quantum systems based on a rather general decimation prescription.
This algorithm has achieved unprecedented precision in the description of
one-dimensional quantum systems. It has therefore quickly acquired the status
of method of choice for numerical studies of one-dimensional quantum systems.
Its applications to the calculation of static, dynamic and thermodynamic
quantities in such systems are reviewed. The potential of DMRG applications in
the fields of two-dimensional quantum systems, quantum chemistry,
three-dimensional small grains, nuclear physics, equilibrium and
non-equilibrium statistical physics, and time-dependent phenomena is discussed.
This review also considers the theoretical foundations of the method, examining
its relationship to matrix-product states and the quantum information content
of the density matrices generated by DMRG.Comment: accepted by Rev. Mod. Phys. in July 2004; scheduled to appear in the
January 2005 issu
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