From Abbott Thayer to the present day: What have we learned about the function of countershading?

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Volumn 364, Issue 1516, 2009, Pages 519-527

  Rowland, Hannah M ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Abrasion; Countershading; Crypsis; Thayer; Thermoregulation; Ultraviolet

Indexed keywords

ABRASION; ANIMAL; ANTIPREDATOR DEFENSE; COLOR; CRYPSIS; PIGMENT; SHADING; TESTING METHOD; THERMOREGULATION; ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION;

ANIMALIA;

EID: 58249113856     PISSN: 09628436     EISSN: 14712970     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2008.0261     Document Type: Review

References (82)

1. Beddard, F. E. 1895 Animal colouration; an account of the principle facts and theories relating to the colours and markings of animals. London, UK: Swan Sonnenschein.
2. Berbaum, K., Bever, T. & Chung, C. 1983 Light source position in the perception of object shape. Perception 12, 411-415.
3. Blender.org 2002 Blender (ed. T. Roosendaal). Amsterdam. See http://www.blender.org/.
4. Bradley, B. J. & Mundy, N. I. 2008 The primate palette: the evolution of primate coloration. Evol. Anthropol. 17, 97-111.
5. Braude, S., Ciszek, D., Berg, N. E. & Shefferly, N. 2001 The ontogeny and distribution of countershading in colonies of the naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber). J. Zool. 253, 351-357.
6. Bretagnolle, V. 1993 Significance of seabird coloration: the case of procellariiforms. Am. Nat. 142, 141-173.
7. Buffernstein, R. & Yahav, S. 1991 Is the naked mole-rat Heterocephalus glaber an endothermic yet poikilothermic mammal? J. Therm. Biol. 16, 227-232.
8. Burtt, E. H. 1981 The adaptiveness of animal colors. Bioscience 31, 723-729.
9. Burtt, E. H. 1986 An analysis of physical, physiological, and optical aspects of avian coloration with emphasis on wood warblers. Ornithol. Monogr. 38, 1-109.
10. Bustard, H. R. 1970 The adaptive significance of coloration in hatchling green sea turtles. Herpetologica 26, 224-227.
11. Caro, T. 2005 Antipredator defenses in birds and mammals. London, UK: The University of Chicago Press Ltd.
12. Chapman, L. J., Kaufman, L. & Chapman, C. A. 1994 Why swim upside down? A comparative-study of 2 mochokid catfishes. Copeia., 130-135.
13. Chester, J. 2001 The nature of penguins. San Francisco, CA: Celestial Arts.
14. Cott, H. B. 1940 Adaptive coloration in animals. London, UK: Methuen.
15. Cowles, R. B. & Bogert, C. M. 1944 A preliminary study of the thermal requirements of desert reptiles. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 83, 265-296.
16. Craik, K. J. 1944 White plumage of sea-birds. Nature 153, 288.
17. Cuthill, I. C., Stevens, M., Sheppard, J., Maddocks, T., Parraga, C. A. & Troscianko, T. S. 2005 Disruptive coloration and background pattern matching. Nature 434, 72-74.
18. de Ruiter, L. 1956 Countershading in caterpillars. An analysis of its adaptive significance. Arch. Neerl. Zool. 11, 285-341.
19. Denton, E. J. & Nicol, J. A. C. 1965 Studies on reflexion of light from silvery surfaces of fishes with special reference to bleak, Alburnus alburnus. J. Mar. Biol. Assoc. UK 45, 683-703.
20. Edmunds, M. 1974 Defence in animals: a survey of antipredator defences. Harlow, Essex, UK: Longman.
21. Edmunds, M. & Dewhirst, R. A. 1994 The survival value of countershading with wild birds as predators. Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 51, 447-452.
22. Edmunds, M. & Grayson, J. 1991 Camouflage and selective predation in caterpillars of the poplar and eyed hawkmoths (Laothoe populi and Smerinthus ocellata). Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 42, 467-480.
23. Evans, M. A. 1965 Mimicry and the Darwinian heritage. J. Hist. Ideas 26, 211-220.
24. Ferguson, G. P. & Messenger, J. B. 1991 A countershading reflex in cephalopods. Proc. R. Soc. B 243, 63-67.
25. Ferguson, G. P., Messenger, J. B. & Budelmann, B. U. 1994 Gravity and light influence the countershading reflexes of the cuttlefish Sepia officinalis. J. Exp. Biol. 191, 247-256.
26. Ferns, P. N. 2003 Plumage colour and pattern in waders. Wader Study Group Bull. 100, 122-129.
27. Ford, E. B. 1990 Butterflies. London, UK: Bloomsbury Books.
28. Goldsmith, S. K. 1984 Aspects of the natural history of the rough green snake, Opheodrys aestivus (Colubridae). Southwest. Nat. 29, 445-452.
29. Gomez, D. & Thery, M. 2007 Simultaneous crypsis and conspicuousness in color patterns: comparative analysis of a neotropical rainforest bird community. Am. Nat. 169, S42-S61.
30. Gosse, K., Wroblewski, J. & Neis, B. 2001 Closing the loop: commercial fish harvesters' local ecological knowledge and science in a study of coastal cod in Newfoundland and Labrador. See http://www.coastsunderstress.ca/ publications.php.
31. Gotmark, F. 1987 White underparts in gulls function as hunting camouflage. Anim. Behav. 35, 1786-1792.
32. Grayson, J. & Edmunds, M. 1989 The causes of color and color-change in caterpillars of the poplar and eyed hawkmoths (Laothoe populi and Smerinthus ocellata). Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 37, 263-279.
33. Gregorin, R., Goncalves, E., Lim, B. K. & Engstrom, M. D. 2006 New species of disk-winged bat Thyroptera and range extension for T. discifera. J. Mamm. 87, 238-246.
34. Hailman, J. P. 1977 Optical signals: animal communication and light. London, UK: Indiana University Press.
35. Hamilton, W. J. 1973 Life's colour code. London, UK: McGraw-Hill.
36. Hastings, J. W. 1971 Light to hide by: ventral luminescence to camouflage the silhouette. Science 173, 1016-1017.
37. Hershberger, W. 1970 Attached-shadow orientation perceived as depth by chickens reared in an environment illuminated from below. J. Comp. Physiol. Psychol. 73, 407-411.
38. Heráň, I. 1976 Animal colouration. The nature and purpose of colours in vertebrates. London, UK: Hamlyn.
39. Hess, E. H. 1950 Development of chick's responses to light and shade cues of depth. J. Comp. Physiol. Psychol. 43, 112-122.
40. Hess, E. H. 1961 Shadows and depth perception. Sci. Am. 204, 138-148.
41. Hoffman, D. D. 1998 Visual intelligence: how we create what we see. London, UK: W. W. Norton & Company Ltd.
42. Kaufman, D. W. 1974 Adaptive coloration in Peromyscus polionotus: experimental selection by owls. J. Mamm. 55, 271-283.
43. Kiltie, R. A. 1988 Countershading - universally deceptive or deceptively universal. Trends Ecol. Evol. 3, 21-23.
44. Kiltie, R. A. 1989 Testing Thayer's countershading hypothesis - an image-processing approach. Anim. Behav. 38, 542-544.
45. Kingsolver, J. G. 2000 Feeding, growth, and the thermal environment of cabbage white caterpillars, Pieris rapae L. Physiol. Biochem. Zool. 73, 621-628.
46. Kleffner, D. A. & Ramachandran, V. S. 1992 On the perception of shape from shading. Percept. Psychophys. 52, 18-36.
47. Korner, H. K. 1982 Countershading by physiological color-change in the fish louse Anilocra physodes L. (Crustacea, Isopoda). Oecologia 55, 248-250.
48. Lai, Y. C., Shiroishi, T., Moriwaki, K., Motokawa, M. & Yu, H. T. 2008 Variation of coat colour in house mice throughout Asia. J. Zool. 274, 270-276.
49. Lauro, B. & Nol, E. 1995 Patterns of habitat use for pied and sooty oystercatchers nesting at the Furneaux Islands, Australia. Condor 97, 920-934.
50. Lindsay, S. M., Frank, T. M., Kent, J., Partridge, J. C. & Latz, M. I. 1999 Spectral sensitivity of vision and bioluminescence in the midwater shrimp Sergestes similis. Biol. Bull. 197, 348-360.
51. Liu, B. & Todd, J. T. 2004 Perceptual biases in the interpretation of 3D shape from shading. Vis. Res. 44, 2135-2145.
52. Lowe, C. & Goodman-Lowe, G. 1996 Suntanning in hammerhead sharks. Nature 383, 677.
53. Mathger, L. M. 2003 The response of squid and fish to changes in the angular distribution of light. J. Mar. Biol. Assoc. UK 83, 849-856.
54. Mingolla, E. & Todd, J. T. 1986 Perception of solid shape from shading. Biol. Cybern. 53, 137-151.
55. Mitchell, D., Paniker, L., Sanchez, G., Trono, D. & Nairn, R. 2007 The etiology of sunlight-induced melanoma in Xiphophorus hybrid fish. Mol. Carcin. 46, 679-684.
56. Moan, J., Porojnicu, A. C. & Dahlback, A. 2008 Ultraviolet radiation and malignant melanoma. Sunlight Vit. D Skin Cancer 624, 104-116.
57. Nagaishi, H., Nishi, H., Fujii, R. & Oshima, N. 1989 Correlation between bosy colour and behaviour in upside-down catfish, Synodontis nigriventis. Comp. Biochem. Physiol. A Mol. Integr. Physiol. 92, 323-326.
58. Norris, K. S. 1967 Color adaptation in desert reptiles and its thermal relationships. In Liazard ecology: a symposium (ed. W. W. Milstead), pp. 163-229. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press.
59. Norris, K. S. & Lowe, C. H. 1964 An analysis of background colour-matching in amphibians and reptiles. Ecology 45, 565-580.
60. Poulton, E. B. 1888 Notes in 1887 upon lepidopterous larvae, etc., including a complete account of the life-history of the larvae of Sphinx convolvuli and Aglia tau. Trans. Entomol. Soc. Lond., 515-606.
61. Ramachandran, V. S. 1988 Perception of shape from shading. Nature 331, 163-166.
62. Rowland, H. M., Speed, M. P., Ruxton, G. D., Edmunds, M., Stevens, M. & Harvey, I. F. 2007 Countershading enhances cryptic protection: an experiment with wild birds and artificial prey. Anim. Behav. 74, 1249-1258.
63. Rowland, H. M., Cuthill, I. C., Harvey, I. F., Speed, M. & Ruxton, G. D. 2008 Can't tell the caterpillars from the trees: countershading enhances survival in a woodland. Proc. R. Soc. B. 275, 2539-2546.
64. Ruxton, G. D., Sherratt, T. N. & Speed, M. P. 2004a Avoiding attack - the evolutionary ecology of crypsis, warning signals and mimicry. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
65. Ruxton, G. D., Speed, M. & Kelly, D. J. 2004b What, if anything, is the adaptive function of countershading. Anim. Behav. 68, 445-451.
66. Sheppard, P. M. 1975 Natural selection and heredity. London, UK: Hutchinson & Co Ltd.
67. Speed, M. P., Kelly, D. J., Davidson, A. M. & Ruxton, G. D. 2005 Countershading enhances crypsis with some bird species but not others. Behav. Ecol. 16, 327-334.
68. Stevens, M. 2007 Predator perception and the interrelation between different forms of protective coloration. Proc. R. Soc. B 274, 1457-1464.
69. Stoner, C. J., Bininda-Emonds, O. R. P. & Caro, T. 2003a The adaptive significance of coloration in lagomorphs. Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 79, 309-328.
70. Stoner, C. J., Caro, T. M. & Graham, C. M. 2003b Ecological and behavioral correlates of coloration in artiodactyls: systematic analyses of conventional hypotheses. Behav. Ecol. 14, 823-840.
71. Thayer, A. H. 1896 The law which underlie protective coloration. Auk 13, 124-129.
72. Thayer, G. H. 1909 Concealing-colouration in the animal kingdom: and exposition of the laws of disguise through colour and pattern: being a summary of Abbot H. Thayer's discoveries. New York, NY: Macmillan.
73. Tinbergen, N. 1957 Defense by colour. Sci. Am. 197, 49.
74. Tinbergen, N. 1958 Curious naturalists. London, UK: Country Life Limited.
75. Tomonaga, M. 1998 Perception of shape from shading in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and humans (Homo sapiens). Anim. Cogn. 1, 25-35.
76. Turner, E. R. A. 1961 Survival values of different methods of camouflage as shown in a model population. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 136, 273-284.
77. Vorobyev, M. & Osorio, D. 1998 Receptor noise as a determinant of colour thresholds. Proc. R. Soc. B 265, 351-358.
78. Wallace, A. R. 1889 Darwinism. An exposition of the theory of natural selection with some of its applications. London, UK: Macmillan & Co.
79. Ward, J. M., Blount, J. D., Ruxton, G. D. & Houston, D. C. 2002 The adaptive significance of dark plumage for birds in desert environments. Ardea 90, 311-323.
80. Whitman, D. W. 1988 Function and evolution of thermo-regulation in the sesert grasshopper Taeniopoda eques. J. Anim. Ecol. 57, 369-383.
81. Wilson, S. G. & Martin, A. R. 2004 Body markings of the whale shark, vestigial or functional. West Aust. Nat. 124, 118-134.
82. Young, R. E. & Roper, C. F. E. 1976 Bioluminescent countershading in midwater animals: evidence from living squid. Science 191, 1046-1048.