Visual complexity of egg patterns predicts egg rejection according to Weber's law.

ABSTRACT: Visual complexity is ubiquitous in nature. Drivers of complexity include selection in coevolutionary arms races between antagonists. However, the causes and consequences of biological complexity and its perception are largely understudied, partly because complexity is difficult to quantify. Here, we address this by studying egg pattern complexity and its perception in hosts (tawny-flanked prinia Prinia subflava), which visually recognize and reject mimetic eggs of their virulent brood parasite (cuckoo finch Anomalospiza imberbis). Using field data and an optimization algorithm, we compute a complexity metric which predicts rejection of experimentally placed conspecific eggs in prinia nests. Real cuckoo finch eggs exhibit significantly lower pattern complexity than prinia eggs

SUBMITTER: Dixit T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9277300 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature