Occurrence and persistence of pseudo-tail spots in the barn swallow.

ABSTRACT: While numerous studies have confirmed sexual selection for ornamental traits in animals, it remains unclear about how animals exaggerate ornamentation across traits. I found that some Asian barn swallows Hirundo rustica gutturalis possessed "pseudo-tail spots" on their undertail coverts adjacent to a well-known sexual signal, the white tail spots. A close inspection showed their remarkable resemblance, and, as a consequence, pseudo-tail spots appear to add white spots to the uniformly black central tail feathers, increasing the total number and area of white spots when spread tails are viewed from below. Pseudo-tail spots on the undertail covers do not incur any flight cost, unlike the white tail spots on the tail itself, and thus presence of pseudo-tail spots can represent an initi

SUBMITTER: Hasegawa M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11239207 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature