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The protective value of a defensive display varies with the experience of wild predators

Predation has driven the evolution of diverse adaptations for defence among prey, and one striking example is the deimatic display. While such displays can resemble, or indeed co-occur with, aposematic ‘warning’ signals, theory suggests deimatic displays may function independently of predator learni...

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Autores principales: Umbers, Kate D. L., White, Thomas E., De Bona, Sebastiano, Haff, Tonya, Ryeland, Julia, Drinkwater, Eleanor, Mappes, Johanna
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6346059/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30679660
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-36995-9
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author Umbers, Kate D. L.
White, Thomas E.
De Bona, Sebastiano
Haff, Tonya
Ryeland, Julia
Drinkwater, Eleanor
Mappes, Johanna
author_facet Umbers, Kate D. L.
White, Thomas E.
De Bona, Sebastiano
Haff, Tonya
Ryeland, Julia
Drinkwater, Eleanor
Mappes, Johanna
author_sort Umbers, Kate D. L.
collection PubMed
description Predation has driven the evolution of diverse adaptations for defence among prey, and one striking example is the deimatic display. While such displays can resemble, or indeed co-occur with, aposematic ‘warning’ signals, theory suggests deimatic displays may function independently of predator learning. The survival value of deimatic displays against wild predators has not been tested before. Here we used the mountain katydid Acripeza reticulata to test the efficacy of a putative deimatic display in the wild. Mountain katydids have a complex defence strategy; they are camouflaged at rest, but reveal a striking red-, blue-, and black-banded abdomen when attacked. We presented live katydids to sympatric (experienced) and allopatric (naive) natural predators, the Australian magpie Cracticus tibicen, and observed bird reactions and katydid behaviors and survival during repeated interactions. The efficacy of the katydids’ defence differed with predator experience. Their survival was greatest when faced with naïve predators, which provided clear evidence of the protective value of the display. In contrast, katydid survival was consistently less likely when facing experienced predators. Our results suggest that sympatric predators have learned to attack and consume mountain katydids despite their complex defense, and that their post-attack display can be an effective deterrent, particularly against naïve predators. These results suggest that deimatism does not require predator learning to afford protection, but that a predator can learn to expect the display and subsequently avoid it or ignore it. That sympatric predators learn to ignore the defense is a possible explanation for the mountain katydid’s counter-intuitive behavior of revealing warning colors only after tactile stimuli from predator attack.
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spelling pubmed-63460592019-01-29 The protective value of a defensive display varies with the experience of wild predators Umbers, Kate D. L. White, Thomas E. De Bona, Sebastiano Haff, Tonya Ryeland, Julia Drinkwater, Eleanor Mappes, Johanna Sci Rep Article Predation has driven the evolution of diverse adaptations for defence among prey, and one striking example is the deimatic display. While such displays can resemble, or indeed co-occur with, aposematic ‘warning’ signals, theory suggests deimatic displays may function independently of predator learning. The survival value of deimatic displays against wild predators has not been tested before. Here we used the mountain katydid Acripeza reticulata to test the efficacy of a putative deimatic display in the wild. Mountain katydids have a complex defence strategy; they are camouflaged at rest, but reveal a striking red-, blue-, and black-banded abdomen when attacked. We presented live katydids to sympatric (experienced) and allopatric (naive) natural predators, the Australian magpie Cracticus tibicen, and observed bird reactions and katydid behaviors and survival during repeated interactions. The efficacy of the katydids’ defence differed with predator experience. Their survival was greatest when faced with naïve predators, which provided clear evidence of the protective value of the display. In contrast, katydid survival was consistently less likely when facing experienced predators. Our results suggest that sympatric predators have learned to attack and consume mountain katydids despite their complex defense, and that their post-attack display can be an effective deterrent, particularly against naïve predators. These results suggest that deimatism does not require predator learning to afford protection, but that a predator can learn to expect the display and subsequently avoid it or ignore it. That sympatric predators learn to ignore the defense is a possible explanation for the mountain katydid’s counter-intuitive behavior of revealing warning colors only after tactile stimuli from predator attack. Nature Publishing Group UK 2019-01-24 /pmc/articles/PMC6346059/ /pubmed/30679660 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-36995-9 Text en © The Author(s) 2019 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Umbers, Kate D. L.
White, Thomas E.
De Bona, Sebastiano
Haff, Tonya
Ryeland, Julia
Drinkwater, Eleanor
Mappes, Johanna
The protective value of a defensive display varies with the experience of wild predators
title The protective value of a defensive display varies with the experience of wild predators
title_full The protective value of a defensive display varies with the experience of wild predators
title_fullStr The protective value of a defensive display varies with the experience of wild predators
title_full_unstemmed The protective value of a defensive display varies with the experience of wild predators
title_short The protective value of a defensive display varies with the experience of wild predators
title_sort protective value of a defensive display varies with the experience of wild predators
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6346059/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30679660
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-36995-9
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