Experimental evidence that matching habitat choice drives local adaptation in a wild population.

ABSTRACT: Matching habitat choice is a unique, flexible form of habitat choice based on self-assessment of local performance. This mechanism is thought to play an important role in adaptation and population persistence in variable environments. Nevertheless, the operation of matching habitat choice in natural populations remains to be unequivocally demonstrated. We investigated the association between body colour and substrate use by ground-perching grasshoppers (Sphingonotus azurescens) in an urban mosaic of dark and pale pavements, and then performed a colour manipulation experiment to test for matching habitat choice based on camouflage through background matching. Naturally, dark and pale grasshoppers occurred mostly on pavements that provided matching backgrounds. Colour-manipulated indi

SUBMITTER: Camacho C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7287376 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature