Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- 1 Animal camouflage
- 2 Crypsis through background matching
- 3 The concealment of body parts through coincident disruptive coloration
- 4 The history, theory and evidence for a cryptic function of countershading
- 5 Camouflage-breaking mathematical operators and countershading
- 6 Nature's artistry
- 7 Camouflage behaviour and body orientation on backgrounds containing directional patterns
- 8 Camouflage and visual perception
- 9 Rapid adaptive camouflage in cephalopods
- 10 What can camouflage tell us about non-human visual perception? A case study of multiple cue use in cuttlefish (Sepia spp.)
- 11 Camouflage in marine fish
- 12 Camouflage in decorator crabs
- 13 Camouflage in colour-changing animals
- 14 The multiple disguises of spiders
- 15 Effects of animal camouflage on the evolution of live backgrounds
- 16 The functions of black-and-white coloration in mammals
- 17 Evidence for camouflage involving senses other than vision
- Index
- Plate section
- References
2 - Crypsis through background matching
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- 1 Animal camouflage
- 2 Crypsis through background matching
- 3 The concealment of body parts through coincident disruptive coloration
- 4 The history, theory and evidence for a cryptic function of countershading
- 5 Camouflage-breaking mathematical operators and countershading
- 6 Nature's artistry
- 7 Camouflage behaviour and body orientation on backgrounds containing directional patterns
- 8 Camouflage and visual perception
- 9 Rapid adaptive camouflage in cephalopods
- 10 What can camouflage tell us about non-human visual perception? A case study of multiple cue use in cuttlefish (Sepia spp.)
- 11 Camouflage in marine fish
- 12 Camouflage in decorator crabs
- 13 Camouflage in colour-changing animals
- 14 The multiple disguises of spiders
- 15 Effects of animal camouflage on the evolution of live backgrounds
- 16 The functions of black-and-white coloration in mammals
- 17 Evidence for camouflage involving senses other than vision
- Index
- Plate section
- References
Summary
Considering its widespread occurrence and importance in the animal kingdom, background matching is clearly one of the most under-studied means of concealment. Background matching means that to decrease the risk of being detected by its predators or prey an animal possesses body colours or patterns that resemble those in the surrounding environment (Figure 2.1). The principle has long been acknowledged (e.g. Darwin 1794), and because of the apparent obviousness of its function, it was used as an example to promote the idea of adaptation in many early evolutionary texts. For instance, Wallace (1889) presented numerous examples of what we today call background matching, and described various cases in which animals ‘blended into’ their backgrounds or had colours ‘assimilated’ to or to ‘harmonise’ with it.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Animal CamouflageMechanisms and Function, pp. 17 - 33Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011
References
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