Camouflage by background matching and disruptive colouration in the polymorphic shrimp species Hippolyte obliquimanus

• Grant number: 15/04484-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): June 30, 2015
• Effective date (End): October 06, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Applied Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Augusto Alberto Valero Flores
• Grantee: Rafael Campos Duarte
• Supervisor: Martin Stevens
• Host Institution: Centro de Biologia Marinha (CEBIMAR). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Sebastião , SP, Brazil
• Research place: University of Exeter, Penryn, England
• Associated to the scholarship: 12/17003-0 - Polymorphism and function in caridean shrimps: habitat use and reproductive tactics in Hippolyte obliquimanus, BP.DR

Abstract

Color camouflage can be considered the most common means to avoid predation in nature and can be achieved by different mechanisms, usually background matching or disruptive coloration. The use of high quality digital cameras to study animal coloration and camouflage is increasingly common because they are more affordable than specialist alternatives, and a wide variety of sophisticated software to analyses the acquired information is available. Image analysis can be used to model animal vision, and thus to understand how different colors or patterns are viewed by animals with distinct color vision systems. This BEPE project consists of a three month training internship at the Centre for Ecology and Conservation of University of Exeter, Penry Campus, United Kingdom, under the supervision of Dr. Martin Stevens. My goal is to learn advanced techniques of image analysis to understand mechanisms of animal coloration, camouflage, and their applicability in modelling predator vision. Digital images of color morphs of the shrimp Hippolyte obliquimanus (the target species of my Ph.D. research), in association with their main habitat (the macroalgae Sargassum furcatum and Galaxaura marginata), will be obtained here in Brazil, in the laboratories of the CEBIMar-USP. These photographs will be analyzed to test whether shrimps become cryptic upon contact with their host algae, and, if so, to evaluate whether shrimp color mimicry is efficient to decrease the probability of detection by a visual predator. We will use a model of fish vision to test for camouflage efficiency. These analytical procedures will be very important to explain the results obtained in previous experiments and to assist further research. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

DUARTE, RAFAEL CAMPOS; STEVENS, MARTIN; VALERO FLORES, AUGUSTO ALBERTO. The adaptive value of camouflage and colour change in a polymorphic prawn. SCIENTIFIC REPORTS, v. 8, OCT 30 2018. (12/17003-0, 15/04484-8, 15/22258-5)

GREEN, SAMUEL D.; DUARTE, RAFAEL C.; KELLETT, EMILY; ALAGARATNAM, NATASHA; STEVENS, MARTIN. Colour change and behavioural choice facilitate chameleon prawn camouflage against different seaweed backgrounds. COMMUNICATIONS BIOLOGY, v. 2, JUN 21 2019. (15/04484-8)