Predator perception of aposematic and cryptic color morphs in two Oophaga species.

Autor: Mantzana-Oikonomaki V; Stiftung Tierärztliche Hochschule Hannover Institut für Zoologie Hannover Germany., Rodríguez A; Stiftung Tierärztliche Hochschule Hannover Institut für Zoologie Hannover Germany., Castillo-Tamayo G; Centro de Investigaciones en Productos Naturales (CIPRONA) & Escuela de Química Universidad de Costa Rica San José Costa Rica., Ibáñez R; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Panama City Panama., Pröhl H; Stiftung Tierärztliche Hochschule Hannover Institut für Zoologie Hannover Germany.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Ecology and evolution [Ecol Evol] 2024 Sep 30; Vol. 14 (10), pp. e70351. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Sep 30 (Print Publication: 2024).
DOI: 10.1002/ece3.70351
Abstrakt: Animals that are toxic often advertise their unprofitability to potential predators through bright aposematic colors while cryptic ones blend in with their natural background to avoid predators. In the poison dart frogs, Oophaga pumilio and O. granulifera, some populations in Costa Rica and Panama display cryptic green and aposematic red color morphs. We herein used reflectance spectra from the dorsum of red and green morphs of these frogs to estimate their perception by the visual systems of three potential predators (birds, lizards, and crabs) against three natural backgrounds (leaves, trunks and leaf litter). Statistical analyses revealed no strong differences in color contrast against backgrounds between the two frog species. However, strong effects of frog morph, predator, background, and their interactions were observed. When viewed against diverse backgrounds, red frogs of both Oophaga species are more color conspicuous to birds and Anoline lizards than to crabs. A strong effect of species was observed on luminance contrast. Concerning the latter, green frogs particularly in O. granulifera appear more conspicuous than red frogs, while birds perceive higher brightness contrasts than lizards or crabs. Our results further support the importance of birds and lizards as Oophaga predators and provide a first quantitative comparison of conspicuousness between these two frog species.
Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
(© 2024 The Author(s). Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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