Body size is one of the most characteristic traits of every animal species and strongly influences its ecological niche. Identifying life-history traits that are associated with body size and investigating possible causalities behind such contingencies is thus a central topic in evolutionary ecology. In this study, we examined whether adult body size in Lepidoptera relates with...
Hybrids can experience genetic incompatibilities that lead to cellular dysfunction and infertility. Selection against hybrids can reinforce species boundaries, while compensatory mechanisms that support hybrid survival can lead to gene flow across species boundaries. Previous analyses of mitochondrial function of the hybrid lizards between Urosaurus graciosus and Urosaurus...
The study focuses on the evolutionary and taxonomic dynamics driving cavernicoly (cave-dwelling behavior) within Cixiidae planthoppers on La Réunion Island. A comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of the island’s cixiid species reveals that the genus Brixia, the most diversified cixiid taxon on the island, exhibits both epigean and hypogean adaptations. In particular, the...
Thermal reaction norms depict how temperature influences biological performances, thus also known as thermal performance curves (TPCs). Arguably, the interplay of the thermal environment and the TPC can shape the strength of natural selection, thereby driving the long-term evolution of the TPC. We develop a Lotka-Volterra model, using adaptive dynamics (AD), to investigate how...
Crypsis, a form of camouflage wherein an organism conceals itself by hindering initial detection by a receiver, is widespread in the animal kingdom. Though crypsis has been the focus of much research, discussions of its function and evolution are mostly restricted to the visual domain. Crypsis is nevertheless a concept that can be usefully applied to non-visual sensory perception...
We examined the colonization potential of the chrysanthemum lace bug, Corythucha marmorata, on populations of its host plant, tall goldenrod, Solidago altissima L. In a common garden experiment, we found variation in plant resistance within and among eight USA and four Japanese populations of S. altissima to herbivory by the Duluth, MN, USA population of C. marmorata. Duluth lace...
Batoids (skates and rays) are the most speciose group of cartilaginous fishes with a diverse array of ecological adaptations and swimming modes. Early skeletal fossil remains and recent phylogenetic analyses suggest that convergence among batoids has occurred independently multiple times. The drivers for such disparity patterns and possible association with modularity and...
The movement of bacteria on the hyphae of fungi and other mycelial-forming organisms is an important process that determines their ability to actively disperse in water-unsaturated habitats. However, direct observation and characterization of bacterial cell movement on mycelial networks have been difficult to achieve. In this study, we developed a new method that uses high-speed...
Organisms require energy for survival, growth, and reproduction. In a system with a finite energy supply, fluctuations in resource availability can select for plasticity in the allocation of resources between competing physiological processes. Infrequently-feeding snakes, which naturally experience extended episodes of fasting, have evolved the capacity to modulate...
Untangling the patterns and proximate drivers of intraspecific genetic and phenotypic structuring informs our understanding of the evolutionary processes shaping diversity. This study investigated morphological and genetic structuring of brown trout (Salmo trutta L.) populations across varying spatial scales in a single, complex, dendritic river catchment and examined the...
Morphological scaling describes changes in the size or shape of one morphological character (e.g. mass, length, width, area etc.) as another increases in size. Understanding how morphological characters scale with body size can shed light on how natural selection influences morphology, and the nature of ecomorphological relationships through ontogeny. Batoids (Elasmobranchii...
Territoriality is a form of social dominance concerning the use of space that ensures the territory owner primary access to critical resources. The territory is defended with visual displays, advertisement calls, physical attacks, or chemical signals. The territory is frequently estimated by mapping locations where an animal is observed engaging in territorial behavior or by...
Camouflage is a classic adaptation used to conceal an individual and avoid detection or recognition by both predator and prey. Research on camouflage spans both artificial systems and real animals, often focussing on the types of camouflage that exist and how they work. It has long been known that many animals also use behaviour to facilitate camouflage, but many questions remain...
Why offspring size and number vary in diverse ways with adult body size is little understood. In my comparative analysis of animal taxa, I show that age-specific mortality predicts the interspecific body-mass (BM) scaling of offspring (egg, embryo, or neonate) mass (OM) and number per clutch (CS) with striking accuracy. Across six animal taxa, the mean ratio of juvenile to adult...
Reproductive patterns observed in organisms are direct outcomes of the interaction among parameters such as phylogeny, body size, and environmental characteristics. However, the action of these parameters is rarely observed in an integrated perspective in the literature. Here, we collected 109 specimens of two congeneric species of treefrogs living in the same microhabitat...
Poison frogs of the superfamily Dendrobatoidea have fascinated researchers since the 19th century, which is reflected in multiple studies on their natural history, taxonomy, toxicity, colour pattern diversity, and elaborate territorial, reproductive and parental care behaviours. Broadly speaking, however, the term “poison frogs” may apply as well to other taxa which also possess...
Fernandez-Duque et al. (Evol Ecol 37:859-869, 2023) reported instances where fledglings, able to move freely, were found in the nests of others of the same species containing chicks that were too young to fly. Interestingly, the foster parents fed these intruder fledglings. The researchers identified this as a novel behavior and termed it “Nest Integration.” However, this...
Aposematic organisms rely on their bright conspicuous coloration to communicate to potential predators that they are toxic and unpalatable. These aposematic phenotypes are strongly tied to survival and therefore make excellent opportunities to investigate the genetic underpinning of coloration. The genus Ranitomeya includes phenotypically diverse members of Neotropical aposematic...
Geographic variation in natural selection derived from biotic sources is an important driver of trait evolution. The evolution of Müllerian mimicry is governed by dual biotic forces of frequency-dependent predator selection and densities of prey populations consisting of conspecifics or congeners. Difficulties in quantifying these biotic forces can lead to difficulties in...
Animal and plant colouration presents a striking dimension of phenotypic variation, the study of which has driven general advances in ecology, evolution, and animal behaviour. Quantitative Colour Pattern Analysis (QCPA) is a dynamic framework for analysing colour patterns through the eyes of non-human observers. However, its extensive array of user-defined image processing and...
Hidden colors are a widespread phenomenon in the animal kingdom, particularly in anurans. In some cases, hidden colors are suddenly exposed during defensive displays to startle predators, others seemingly remain hidden—particularly from researchers. Amazonian species of Neotropical harlequin toads (genus Atelopus) show striking and consistent ventral sexual dichromatism where...