Some Experiments On the Camouflage of Stick Caterpillars1)

Ruiter, L. de

doi:10.1163/156853951x00151

Cited by 118 publications

(35 citation statements)

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“…In this phenomenon, which has also been termed special resemblance (Cott 1957) or masquerade (Endler 1981), the animal evolves a detailed likeness to some specific, local feature of its envi-ronment (Edmunds 1990, Robinson 1969, Vane-Wright 1980. Pattern mimicry has produced some of the most spectacular examples of protective coloration, such as stick caterpillars (de Ruiter 1952), leaf-mimicking katydids (Castner & Nickle 1995), and leafy seadragons (Connolly et al 2002). However, most cryptically colored species display a more global, statistical resemblance to the background, in which the wavelength, intensity, and size of prey color patches converge on the mean of a multivariate distribution of background features.…”

Section: Components Of Crypticitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Evolution of Color Polymorphism: Crypticity, Searching Images, and Apostatic Selection

Bond

2007

Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst.

257

261

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The development and maintenance of color polymorphism in cryptic prey species is a source of enduring fascination, in part because it appears to result from selective processes operating across multiple levels of analysis, ranging from cognitive psychology to population ecology. Since the 1960s, prey species with diverse phenotypes have been viewed as the evolved reflection of the perceptual and cognitive characteristics of their predators. Because it is harder to search simultaneously for two or more cryptic prey types than to search for only one, visual predators should tend to focus on the most abundant forms and effectively overlook the others. The result should be frequency-dependent, apostatic selection, which will tend to stabilize the prey polymorphism. Validating this elegant hypothesis has been difficult, and many details have been established only relatively recently. This review clarifies the argument for a perceptual selective mechanism and examines the relevant experimental evidence.

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Section: Components Of Crypticitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Evolution of Color Polymorphism: Crypticity, Searching Images, and Apostatic Selection

Bond

2007

Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst.

257

261

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“…Predators guided by vision often prey differentially on different prey types (1), a response frequently taken as evidence for a predator's use of a specific search image (2,3). This evidence has included a number of different behavioral patterns, such as a predator's choosing one prey type more frequently than would be expected from the prey's relative density (1), a predator's responding to a familiar prey type before responding to a newly introduced type (2), or a predator's delaying before responding to a novel, cryptic prey type (3).…”

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Search Image Formation in the Blue Jay ( Cyanocitta cristata )

Pietrewicz

Kamil

1979

Science

305

188

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“…Predators hunting in this way will tend to avoid widely spaced prey. Many cryptic and palatable prey are solitary (de Ruiter, 1952;Edmunds, 1974), and Croze(1970) andTinbergen etaL(1967)found that widely spaced cryptic baits suffered relatively less predation, perhaps because of a concentration by predators on a small area to reduce the time and energy involved in hunting (Curio, 1976). This behaviour will penalise groups of palatable prey, both because any searching image is more frequently reinforced and because any tendency to concentrate on the site of a successful first encounter with a particular food item will ensure that the predator takes more of them.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%