Stabilizing selection on individual pattern elements of aposematic signals.

Autor: Winters AE; School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia anne.winters@uqconnect.edu.au., Green NF; School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia., Wilson NG; Western Australian Museum, Welshpool, Western Australia 6106, Australia.; School of Animal Biology, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia., How MJ; School of Biological Sciences, The University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK., Garson MJ; School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia., Marshall NJ; Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia., Cheney KL; School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia.; Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Proceedings. Biological sciences [Proc Biol Sci] 2017 Aug 30; Vol. 284 (1861).
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2017.0926
Abstrakt: Warning signal variation is ubiquitous but paradoxical: low variability should aid recognition and learning by predators. However, spatial variability in the direction and strength of selection for individual elements of the warning signal may allow phenotypic variation for some components, but not others. Variation in selection may occur if predators only learn particular colour pattern components rather than the entire signal. Here, we used a nudibranch mollusc, Goniobranchus splendidus , which exhibits a conspicuous red spot/white body/yellow rim colour pattern, to test this hypothesis. We first demonstrated that secondary metabolites stored within the nudibranch were unpalatable to a marine organism. Using pattern analysis, we demonstrated that the yellow rim remained invariable within and between populations; however, red spots varied significantly in both colour and pattern. In behavioural experiments, a potential fish predator, Rhinecanthus aculeatus , used the presence of the yellow rims to recognize and avoid warning signals. Yellow rims remained stable in the presence of high genetic divergence among populations. We therefore suggest that how predators learn warning signals may cause stabilizing selection on individual colour pattern elements, and will thus have important implications on the evolution of warning signals.
(© 2017 The Author(s).)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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