Bibiana Rojas

Sexual dimorphism and intra-populational colour pattern variation in the aposematic frog Dendrobates tinctorius

Despite the predicted purifying role of stabilising selection against variation in warning signals, many aposematic species exhibit high variation in their colour patterns. The maintenance of such variation is not well understood, but it has been suggested to be the result of an interaction between sexual and natural selection. This interaction could also facilitate the evolution of sexual dichromatism. Here we analyse in detail the colour patterns of the poison frog Dendrobates tinctorius and evaluate the possible correlates of the variability in aposematic signals in a natural population. Against the theoretical predictions of aposematism, we found that there is enormous intra-populational variation in colour patterns and that these also differ between the sexes: males have a yellower dorsum and bluer limbs than females. We discuss the possible roles of natural and sexual selection in the maintenance of this sexual dimorphism in coloration and argue that parental care could work synergistically with aposematism to select for yellower males.

The Spatial Pattern of Natural Selection When Selection Depends on Experience

Apostatic (frequency‐ or density‐dependent) selection, aposematic signals, and mate choice behavior generally require that the mean prey or potential mate density m value be high enough (above a threshold T) to result in sufficient encounter rates for the searcher to learn or retain the association between conspicuous signals and prey unprofitability, to forage apostatically, or to choose among mates. This assumes that all searchers experience \documentclass{aastex} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{bm} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{pifont} \usepackage{stmaryrd} \usepackage{textcomp} \usepackage{portland,xspace} \usepackage{amsmath,amsxtra} \usepackage[OT2,OT1]{fontenc} \newcommand\cyr{ \renewcommand\rmdefault{wncyr} \renewcommand\sfdefault{wncyss} \renewcommand\encodingdefault{OT2} \normalfont \selectfont} \DeclareTextFontCommand{\textcyr}{\cyr} \pagestyle{empty} \DeclareMathSizes{10}{9}{7}{6} \begin{document} \landscape

Visual illusions in predator–prey interactions: birds find moving patterned prey harder to catch

m> T

Behavioural, ecological, and evolutionary aspects of diversity in frog colour patterns: Function and evolution of frog colour diversity

\end{document} , which implicitly assumes an even dispersion of targets among searcher territories. Uneven dispersion generates new phenomena. If \documentclass{aastex} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{bm} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{pifont} \usepackage{stmaryrd} \usepackage{textcomp} \usepackage{portland,xspace} \usepackage{amsmath,amsxtra} \usepackage[OT2,OT1]{fontenc} \newcommand\cyr{ \renewcommand\rmdefault{wncyr} \renewcommand\sfdefault{wncyss} \renewcommand\encodingdefault{OT2} \normalfont \selectfont} \DeclareTextFontCommand{\textcyr}{\cyr} \pagestyle{empty} \DeclareMathSizes{10}{9}{7}{6} \begin{document} \landscape

Colour and luminance contrasts predict the human detection of natural stimuli in complex visual environments

m< T

Mind the gap: treefalls as drivers of parental trade-offs.

\end{document} , then only territories with local density x values that are greater than T favor experience‐based behavior, leading to spatially variable frequency‐ or density‐dependent selection intensity. As aggregation increases, the increase in percentage of targets in favorable territories ( \documentclass{aastex} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{bm} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{pifont} \usepackage{stmaryrd} \usepackage{textcomp} \usepackage{portland,xspace} \usepackage{amsmath,amsxtra} \usepackage[OT2,OT1]{fontenc} \newcommand\cyr{ \renewcommand\rmdefault{wncyr} \renewcommand\sfdefault{wncyss} \renewcommand\encodingdefault{OT2} \normalfont \selectfont} \DeclareTextFontCommand{\textcyr}{\cyr} \pagestyle{empty} \DeclareMathSizes{10}{9}{7}{6} \begin{document} \landscape