Warning: file_get_contents(https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/elink.fcgi?dbfrom=pubmed&id=26041868
&cmd=llinks): Failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 429 Too Many Requests
in C:\Inetpub\vhosts\kidney.de\httpdocs\pget.php on line 215
The evolutionary ecology of decorating behaviour
#MMPMID26041868
Ruxton GD
; Stevens M
Biol Lett
2015[Jun]; 11
(6
): 20150325
PMID26041868
show ga
Many animals decorate themselves through the accumulation of environmental
material on their exterior. Decoration has been studied across a range of
different taxa, but there are substantial limits to current understanding.
Decoration in non-humans appears to function predominantly in defence against
predators and parasites, although an adaptive function is often assumed rather
than comprehensively demonstrated. It seems predominantly an aquatic
phenomenon-presumably because buoyancy helps reduce energetic costs associated
with carrying the decorative material. In terrestrial examples, decorating is
relatively common in the larval stages of insects. Insects are small and thus
able to generate the power to carry a greater mass of material relative to their
own body weight. In adult forms, the need to be lightweight for flight probably
rules out decoration. We emphasize that both benefits and costs to decoration are
rarely quantified, and that costs should include those associated with collecting
as well as carrying the material.
free
free
free
