Matchette S R, Schneider J, Drerup C, Winters S, Radford A N, Herbert-Read J E
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ, United Kingdom.
Reef Renewal Foundation Curaçao, Ocean Encounters, Babor Kibra z/n, Willemstad, Curaçao.
Behav Ecol. 2025 May 24;36(4):araf059. doi: 10.1093/beheco/araf059. eCollection 2025 Jul-Aug.
The color polymorphisms of prey species are often maintained by apostatic selection. In particular, rarer morphs are thought to be at an advantage because attentional constraints result in predators forming search images, which are based on the most abundant prey morph. Predatory species can also be polymorphic and predator morph abundance may be maintained by a similar mechanism, given prey are also likely to form search images to ensure fast and appropriate anti-predatory responses. Alternatively, given that the predator polymorphism may be driven by other ecological factors (eg niche divergence or sexual selection), prey may instead be highly sensitive to the relative visual saliency of different predatory morphs, which in turn could impact predator morph abundance. Here, by combining empirical observations with a field experiment, we assessed how the relative abundance and saliency of different color morphs of the predatory trumpetfish () influenced the behavioral responses of a typical prey species, the bicolor damselfish (). We found that more abundant predator color morphs were less salient in damselfish vision (relative to the background) than less abundant color morphs. By presenting 3D models of each morph to damselfish, we found that they did not respond differently to more abundant or more salient morphs. Our results suggest that both the relative abundance and saliency of predator morphs could contribute towards the search images used by prey. Specifically, each morph could have relatively equal detectability if their abundance and saliency have antagonistic effects on search-image formation in prey.
猎物物种的颜色多态性通常由突变型选择维持。特别是，人们认为较罕见的形态具有优势，因为注意力限制会导致捕食者形成基于最丰富猎物形态的搜索图像。捕食性物种也可能是多态的，并且鉴于猎物也可能形成搜索图像以确保快速且适当的反捕食反应，捕食者形态的丰度可能通过类似机制维持。或者，鉴于捕食者多态性可能由其他生态因素（如生态位分化或性选择）驱动，猎物可能反而对不同捕食者形态的相对视觉显著性高度敏感，这反过来可能影响捕食者形态的丰度。在这里，通过将实证观察与田间实验相结合，我们评估了捕食性管口鱼（）不同颜色形态的相对丰度和显著性如何影响典型猎物物种双色雀鲷（）的行为反应。我们发现，在雀鲷视觉中（相对于背景），较丰富的捕食者颜色形态比较不丰富的颜色形态显著性更低。通过向雀鲷展示每种形态的3D模型，我们发现它们对更丰富或更显著的形态没有不同反应。我们的结果表明，捕食者形态的相对丰度和显著性都可能有助于猎物使用的搜索图像。具体而言，如果它们的丰度和显著性对猎物搜索图像形成具有拮抗作用，那么每种形态可能具有相对相等的可检测性。
