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The role of tadpole coloration against visually oriented predators

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Abstract

An animal’s vulnerability to predators can be influenced by its behavior, morphology, body size, coloration, habitat preferences, and palatability. We tested whether the coloration of Bokermannohyla saxicola and Scinax machadoi tadpoles affects their survival when exposed to local visually oriented predators at a site in southeastern Brazil. We tested three aquatic invertebrates (Aeshnidae, Belostoma sp., Lethocerus sp.) and birds as tadpole predators. We predicted that predation rates would differ depending on the substrate where the tadpoles positioned themselves (light or dark), hypothesizing that each tadpole would use preferentially a background that conferred camouflage and that predation levels would be lower on such backgrounds compared to others. B. saxicola had higher survivorship than S. machadoi on light backgrounds at some instances, in accordance with its crypsis hypothesis. However, B. saxicola tadpoles did not use light backgrounds more often than dark ones. S. machadoi coloration looked disruptive on both light and dark backgrounds, and tadpoles showed no preference or differences in survival rates between these backgrounds. Predation rates did not differ between the two species in a way that could confirm a previous hypothesis of aposematic/mimetic coloration for S. machadoi tadpoles. Our results show that colorations that appear to function to impair visual detection may play this role at some circumstances but not others. Tadpole colorations may have evolved in another context, in which avoiding visual detection by predators was a stronger selective pressure. In a context with lower predation pressure from visually oriented predators, the expected background choice behavior for increased camouflage may not be strongly selected for.

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Acknowledgments

We are thankful to J. Kloh, H. Kiefer, L. Penna, G. Pimenta, E. Souza, F. Cristóvão, and others for help during field work, to J. E. C. Figueira, L. Schiesari, and two anonymous referees for suggestions on previous versions of this manuscript, to F. S. Neves, A. Viana, and C. A. Galdino for help with statistics, to CEMAVE and Sisbio/ICMBio for permits (35152-1), to Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (Fapemig; CRA APQ 01274-13), and to Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) for the scholarships provided to JEMD and PCE (Productivity Grant 304422/2014-2).

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  1. Programa de Pós Graduação em Biologia de Vertebrados, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, 30535-610, Brazil

    Juan Espanha, Marcelo F. de Vasconcelos & Paula C. Eterovick

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  1. Juan Espanha
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  2. Marcelo F. de Vasconcelos
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  3. Paula C. Eterovick
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Correspondence to Paula C. Eterovick.

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Funding

This study was funded by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (Fapemig; CRA APQ 01274-13) and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) who provided scholarships to JEMD and PCE (Productivity Grant 304422/2014-2).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethical approval

All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed (permit obtained from ICMBio/Sisbio: 35152-1). During the whole study, 122 B. saxicola tadpoles and 126 S. machadoi tadpoles were predated, and 25 and 47 tadpoles, respectively, were injured by predators. This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.

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Communicated by K. Summers

Significance statement

The use of camouflage to avoid visually oriented predators may be an effective strategy as long as the prey is able to choose backgrounds that match their body colors (crypsis) or disrupts identification of body contour by matching some specific parts of the body but not others (disruptive camouflage). We used tadpoles of two species to test the hypotheses of (1) effective camouflage reducing predation and (2) tadpoles choosing backgrounds that promote lower predation levels. Although in some circumstances one species was shown to be less predated on a background expected to enhance its camouflage, it did not use this background more often than an alternative. Our results suggest that extant predation pressures may not be strong enough to shape background choice behavior in these tadpoles. Alternatively, tadpoles may choose backgrounds for camouflage just under imminent predation risk.

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Espanha, J., de Vasconcelos, M.F. & Eterovick, P.C. The role of tadpole coloration against visually oriented predators. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 70, 255–267 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-015-2044-4

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