Dataset Information

Thistledown velvet ants in the Desert Mimicry Ring and the evolution of white coloration: Mullerian mimicry, camouflage and thermal ecology.

ABSTRACT: Adaptive coloration among animals is one of the most recognizable outcomes of natural selection. Here, we investigate evolutionary drivers of white coloration in velvet ants (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae), which has previously been considered camouflage with the fruit of creosote bush (Larrea tridentata). Our analyses indicate instead that velvet ants evolved white coloration millions of years before creosote bush was widespread in North America's hot deserts. Furthermore, velvet ants and the creosote fruit exhibit different spectral reflectance patterns, which appear distinct to potential insectivorous predators. While the white coloration in velvet ants likely did not evolve as camouflage, we find that white-coloured species remain cooler than their red/orange relatives, and therefore we infer the white coloration likely evolved in response to Neogene desertification. This study shows the importance of cross-disciplinary investigation and of testing multiple hypotheses when investigating evolutionary drivers of adaptive coloration.

SUBMITTER: Wilson JS

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7423050 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Thistledown velvet ants in the Desert Mimicry Ring and the evolution of white coloration: Müllerian mimicry, camouflage and thermal ecology.

Wilson Joseph S JS Sidwell Jeni Sage JS Forister Matthew L ML Williams Kevin A KA Pitts James P JP

Biology letters 20200715 7

Adaptive coloration among animals is one of the most recognizable outcomes of natural selection. Here, we investigate evolutionary drivers of white coloration in velvet ants (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae), which has previously been considered camouflage with the fruit of creosote bush (<i>Larrea tridentata</i>). Our analyses indicate instead that velvet ants evolved white coloration millions of years before creosote bush was widespread in North America's hot deserts. Furthermore, velvet ants and the ...[more]

PMID: 32673546

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Project description:Many species employ camouflage to disguise their true shape and avoid detection or recognition. Disruptive coloration is a form of camouflage in which high-contrast patterns obscure internal features or break up an animal's outline. In particular, edge enhancement creates illusory, or 'fake' depth edges within the animal's body. Disruptive coloration often co-occurs with background matching, and together, these strategies make it difficult for an observer to visually segment an animal from its background. However, stereoscopic vision could provide a critical advantage in the arms race between perception and camouflage: the depth information provided by binocular disparities reveals the true three-dimensional layout of a scene, and might, therefore, help an observer to overcome the effects of disruptive coloration. Human observers located snake targets embedded in leafy backgrounds. We analysed performance (response time) as a function of edge enhancement, illumination conditions and the availability of binocular depth cues. We confirm that edge enhancement contributes to effective camouflage: observers were slower to find snakes whose patterning contains 'fake' depth edges. Importantly, however, this effect disappeared when binocular depth cues were available. Illumination also affected detection: under directional illumination, where both the leaves and snake produced strong cast shadows, snake targets were localized more quickly than in scenes rendered under ambient illumination. In summary, we show that illusory depth edges, created via disruptive coloration, help to conceal targets from human observers. However, cast shadows and binocular depth information improve detection by providing information about the true three-dimensional structure of a scene. Importantly, the strong interaction between disparity and edge enhancement suggests that stereoscopic vision has a critical role in breaking camouflage, enabling the observer to overcome the disruptive effects of edge enhancement.

Dataset Information

Thistledown velvet ants in the Desert Mimicry Ring and the evolution of white coloration: Mullerian mimicry, camouflage and thermal ecology.

Publications

Thistledown velvet ants in the Desert Mimicry Ring and the evolution of white coloration: Müllerian mimicry, camouflage and thermal ecology.

Similar Datasets

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