| Camouflage effects of various colour-marking morphs against different microhabitat backgrounds in a polymorphic pygmy grasshopper Tetrix japonica. | |
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MedLine Citation:
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PMID: 20625405 Owner: NLM Status: MEDLINE |
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
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BACKGROUND: 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). METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: 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? CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: 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. |
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Authors:
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Kaori Tsurui; Atsushi Honma; Takayoshi Nishida |
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Publication Detail:
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Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Date: 2010-07-06 |
Journal Detail:
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Title: PloS one Volume: 5 ISSN: 1932-6203 ISO Abbreviation: PLoS ONE Publication Date: 2010 |
Date Detail:
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Created Date: 2010-07-13 Completed Date: 2010-10-28 Revised Date: - |
Medline Journal Info:
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Nlm Unique ID: 101285081 Medline TA: PLoS One Country: United States |
Other Details:
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Languages: eng Pagination: e11446 Citation Subset: IM |
Affiliation:
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Laboratory of Insect Ecology, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Sakyo, Kyoto, Japan. tsurik@kais.kyoto-u.ac.jp |
Export Citation:
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| MeSH Terms | |
Descriptor/Qualifier:
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Adaptation, Physiological
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physiology* Animals Grasshoppers / physiology* Pigmentation* |
| Comments/Corrections | |
From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine
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