Diversity in warning coloration: selective paradox or the norm?

ABSTRACT: Aposematic theory has historically predicted that predators should select for warning signals to converge on a single form, as a result of frequency-dependent learning. However, widespread variation in warning signals is observed across closely related species, populations and, most problematically for evolutionary biologists, among individuals in the same population. Recent research has yielded an increased awareness of this diversity, challenging the paradigm of signal monomorphy in aposematic animals. Here we provide a comprehensive synthesis of these disparate lines of investigation, identifying within them three broad classes of explanation for variation in aposematic warning signals: genetic mechanisms, differences among predators and predator behaviour, and alternative selection pre

SUBMITTER: Briolat ES 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6446817 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature