Background colour matching increases with risk of predation in a colour-changing grasshopper

Pim Edelaar, Adrián Baños-Villalba, Graciela Escudero and Consuelo Rodríguez-Bernal

Behavioral Ecology, 2017, vol. 28, issue 3, 698-705

Abstract: Lay Summary Grasshoppers increase their camouflage when it matters more. Azure Sand Grasshoppers can change their colour so it matches the environment, just like chameleons, only by different means and therefore more slowly. When exposed to a greater risk of predation, they improve their colour match even more, as was known for fast colour changers. This shows that fast and slow colour changers are not that different, apart from how, and how fast, they change.

Keywords: camouflage; crypsis; environmental variability; heritability; morphological colour change; Oedipodinae; phenotypic plasticity; threat-sensitivity hypothesis. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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