title: Conspicuousness, color resemblance, and toxicity in geographically diverging mimicry: The pan-Amazonian frog Allobates femoralis.
abstract: Predation risk is allegedly reduced in Batesian and Müllerian mimics, because their coloration resembles the conspicuous coloration of unpalatable prey. The efficacy of mimicry is thought to be affected by variation in the unpalatability of prey, the conspicuousness of the signals, and the visual system of predators that see them. Many frog species exhibit small colorful patches contrasting against an otherwise dark body. By measuring toxicity and color reflectance in a geographically variable frog species and the syntopic toxic species, we tested whether unpalatability was correlated with between-species color resemblance and whether resemblance was highest for the most conspicuous components of coloration pattern. Heterospecific resemblance in colorful patches was highest between species at the same locality, but unrelated to concomitant variation in toxicity. Surprisingly, resemblance was lower for the conspicuous femoral patches compared to the inconspicuous dorsum. By building visual models, we further tested whether resemblance was affected by the visual system of model predators. As predicted, mimic-model resemblance was higher under the visual system of simulated predators compared to no visual system at all. Our results indicate that femoral patches are aposematic signals and support a role of mimicry in driving phenotypic divergence or mimetic radiation between localities.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Universidad de los Andes, Cra 1 #18A-10, Bogotá, 111711, Colombia.
authors.forename: Adolfo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Amézquita
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Universidad de los Andes, Cra 1 #18A-10, Bogotá, 111711, Colombia.
authors.forename: Óscar
authors.initials: Ó
authors.lastname: Ramos
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Universidad de los Andes, Cra 1 #18A-10, Bogotá, 111711, Colombia.
authors.forename: Mabel Cristina
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: González
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Universidad de los Andes, Cra 1 #18A-10, Bogotá, 111711, Colombia.
authors.forename: Camilo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rodríguez
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Universidad de los Andes, Cra 1 #18A-10, Bogotá, 111711, Colombia.
authors.forename: Iliana
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Medina
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Sistemática de Vertebrados, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Ipiranga 6681, Prédio 40, sala 110, Porto Alegre CEP, 90619-900, Brasil.|Coordenação de Pesquisas en Biodiversidade, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA), Av. André Araujo 2936, Manaus CEP, 69011-970, Brasil.
authors.forename: Pedro Ivo
authors.initials: PI
authors.lastname: Simões
authors.affiliation: Coordenação de Pesquisas en Biodiversidade, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA), Av. André Araujo 2936, Manaus CEP, 69011-970, Brasil.
authors.forename: Albertina Pimentel
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Lima
mesh_terms: D063147:Animal Distribution; D000818:Animals; D001001:Anura / Q000502:physiology*; D005075:Biological Evolution; D000067558:Biological Mimicry; D003116:Color; D020387:Food Chain; D010858:Pigmentation; D011235:Predatory Behavior
keywords: Coloration; geographic variation; mimicry; poison frogs