Colour change and behavioural choice facilitate chameleon prawn camouflage against different seaweed backgrounds

摘要

Camouflage is driven by matching the visual environment, yet natural habitats are rarely uniform and comprise many backgrounds. Therefore, species often exhibit adaptive traits to maintain crypsis, including colour change and behavioural choice of substrates. However, previous work largely considered these solutions in isolation, whereas many species may use a combination of behaviour and appearance to facilitate concealment. Here we show that green and red chameleon prawns (Hippolyte varians) closely resemble their associated seaweed substrates to the vision of predatory fish, and that they can change colour to effectively match new backgrounds. Prawns also select colour-matching substrates when offered a choice. However, colour change occurs over weeks, consistent with seasonal changes in algal cover, whereas behavioural choice of matching substrates occurs in the short-term, facilitating matches within heterogeneous environments. We demonstrate how colour change and behaviour combine to facilitate camouflage against different substrates in environments varying spatially and temporally. Samuel Green, Rafael Duarte et al. use models of fish vision to quantify camouflage in green and red chameleon prawns against seaweed backgrounds. They find that while color change occurs over longer periods of time, prawns modify their behaviour in the short term to select color-matching backgrounds.