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Deimatism: a neglected component of antipredator defence

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journal contribution
posted on 2017-04-01, 00:00 authored by K D L Umbers, S De Bona, T E White, J Lehtonen, J Mappes, John EndlerJohn Endler
Deimatic or 'startle' displays cause a receiver to recoil reflexively in response to a sudden change in sensory input. Deimatism is sometimes implicitly treated as a form of aposematism (unprofitability associated with a signal). However, the fundamental difference is, in order to provide protection, deimatism does not require a predator to have any learned or innate aversion. Instead, deimatism can confer a survival advantage by exploiting existing neural mechanisms in a way that releases a reflexive response in the predator. We discuss the differences among deimatism, aposematism, and forms of mimicry, and their ecological and evolutionary implications. We highlight outstanding questions critical to progress in understanding deimatism.

History

Journal

Biology letters

Volume

13

Issue

4

Pagination

1 - 5

Publisher

The Royal Society Publishing

Location

London, Eng.

eISSN

1744-957X

Language

eng

Publication classification

C Journal article; C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2017, The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society.