Journal article
Signal categorization by foraging animals depends on ecological diversity
- Kikuchi, David William ORCID Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, United States
- Dornhaus, Anna Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, United States
- Gopeechund, Vandana Department of Biology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
- Sherratt, Thomas N Department of Biology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
- 2019-4-25
Published in:
- eLife. - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd. - 2019, vol. 8
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
General Immunology and Microbiology
General Neuroscience
General Medicine
English
Warning signals displayed by defended prey are mimicked by both mutualistic (Müllerian) and parasitic (Batesian) species. Yet mimicry is often imperfect: why does selection not improve mimicry? Predators create selection on warning signals, so predator psychology is crucial to understanding mimicry. We conducted experiments where humans acted as predators in a virtual ecosystem to ask how prey diversity affects the way that predators categorize prey phenotypes as profitable or unprofitable. The phenotypic diversity of prey communities strongly affected predator categorization. Higher diversity increased the likelihood that predators would use a ‘key’ trait to form broad categories, even if it meant committing errors. Broad categorization favors the evolution of mimicry. Both species richness and evenness contributed significantly to this effect. This lets us view the behavioral and evolutionary processes leading to mimicry in light of classical community ecology. Broad categorization by receivers is also likely to affect other forms of signaling.
- Language
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- English
- Open access status
- gold
- Identifiers
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- DOI 10.7554/eLife.43965
- ISSN 2050-084X
- Persistent URL
- https://sonar.ch/global/documents/186023
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