Specific color sensitivities of prey and predator explain camouflage in different visual systems

2004

In situations of aggressive mimicry, predators adapt their color to that of the substrate on which they sit for hunting, a behavior that is presumed to hide them from prey as well as from their own predators. Females of few crab-spider species encounter such situations when lying on flowers to ambush pollinators. To evaluate the efficiency of spider camouflage on flowers, we measured by spectroradiometry adult female Thomisus onustus and marguerite daisies, Leucanthemum vulgare. We compared chromatic contrast (color used for short-range detection) of each pair of spider and flower to detection thresholds computed in the visual systems of both Hymenopteran prey and passerine bird predator. W…