Behaviourally mediated crypsis in two nocturnal moths with contrasting appearance.

ABSTRACT: The natural resting orientations of several species of nocturnal moth on tree trunks were recorded over a three-month period in eastern Ontario, Canada. Moths from certain genera exhibited resting orientation distributions that differed significantly from random, whereas others did not. In particular, Catocala spp. collectively tended to orient vertically, whereas subfamily Larentiinae representatives showed a variety of orientations that did not differ significantly from random. To understand why different moth species adopted different orientations, we presented human subjects with a computer-based detection task of finding and 'attacking' Catocala cerogama and Euphyia intermediata target images at different orientations when superimposed on images of sugar maple (Acer saccharum) trees.

SUBMITTER: Webster RJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2674076 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature