Rodríguez-Morales D, Rico-Gray V, García-Franco J G, Ajuria-Ibarra H, Hernández-Salazar L T, Robledo-Ospina L E, Rao D
Instituto de Neuroetología, Universidad Veracruzana, Av. Luis Castelazo, Col. Industrial Animas, Xalapa, 91190, Veracruz, Mexico.
Red de Ecología Funcional, Instituto de Ecología, A.C. Carretera Antigua a Coatepec 351, El Haya, Xalapa, 91070, Veracruz, Mexico.
Naturwissenschaften. 2018 May 12;105(5-6):36. doi: 10.1007/s00114-018-1562-0.
Many animals use body coloration as a strategy to communicate with conspecifics, prey, and predators. Color is a trade-off for some species, since they should be visible to conspecifics but cryptic to predators and prey. Some flower-dwelling predators, such as crab spiders, are capable of choosing the color of flowers where they ambush flower visitors and pollinators. In order to avoid being captured, visitors evaluate flowers visually before landing. The crab spider Mecaphesa dubia is a polymorphic species (white/purple color morphs), which inhabits the flower heads of a dune plant, Palafoxia lindenii. Using full-spectrum photography of spiders and flowers, we evaluated how honeybees perceived the spiders at different distances. Using visual modeling, we obtained the chromatic and achromatic contrasts of the spiders on flower heads as perceived by honeybees. Purple morphs were found mainly on the receptacle area and white morphs were equally likely to be found in the flowers and receptacle. According to theoretical modeling, white morphs were visible to honeybees from a distance of 10 cm in receptacle area but appeared to be cryptic in the flower area. Purple morphs were cryptic on the receptacle and less so when they were on the flowers. Spiders on flower heads are predicted to be more easily detected by honeybees using chromatic contrast. Our study shows that the conspicuousness of flower dwelling spiders to honeybees depends on the color morph, the distance of observation, and the position of spider on the flower head.
许多动物将身体颜色作为与同种个体、猎物和捕食者进行交流的一种策略。对于一些物种来说，颜色是一种权衡，因为它们需要对同种个体可见，但对捕食者和猎物则要具有隐蔽性。一些栖息在花朵上的捕食者，如蟹蛛，能够选择它们伏击花朵访客和传粉者的花朵颜色。为了避免被捕获，访客在着陆前会对花朵进行视觉评估。蟹蛛Mecaphesa dubia是一种多态性物种（白色/紫色形态），栖息在沙丘植物林登氏帕拉福花（Palafoxia lindenii）的花头上。通过对蜘蛛和花朵进行全光谱摄影，我们评估了蜜蜂在不同距离下如何感知蜘蛛。通过视觉建模，我们获得了蜜蜂所感知到的花头上蜘蛛的彩色和非彩色对比度。发现紫色形态主要出现在花托区域，而白色形态在花朵和花托中出现的可能性相同。根据理论建模，白色形态在花托区域从10厘米的距离对蜜蜂可见，但在花朵区域似乎具有隐蔽性。紫色形态在花托上具有隐蔽性，而在花朵上则不太隐蔽。预计花头上的蜘蛛通过彩色对比度更容易被蜜蜂发现。我们的研究表明，栖息在花朵上的蜘蛛对蜜蜂的显眼程度取决于颜色形态、观察距离以及蜘蛛在花头上的位置。
