Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T00:18:56.080Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The snake head-shape signal: a reply to Valkonen & Mappes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 December 2011

Murilo Guimarães*
Affiliation:
Departamento de Biologia Animal, Programa de Pós Graduação em Ecologia, Instituto de Biologia, Caixa Postal 6109, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 13083-970, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil
Ricardo J. Sawaya
Affiliation:
Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Rua Prof. Artur Riedel, 275, 09972-270, Diadema, São Paulo, Brazil
*
1Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]

Extract

It has already been suggested that snake head triangulation might be related to mimicry of the head shape of vipers (Greene & McDiarmid 2005, and references therein). Until very recently, this hypothesis has never been experimentally tested. We first tested the hypothesis of snakes’ head shape as a dangerous signal to predators by use of plasticine models (Guimarães & Sawaya 2011). We suggested in that study that shape of the head does not confer advantage itself but may work in synergy with a set of traits including colour and behavioural displays that warn and discourage predator attacks.

Type
Short Communication
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

LITERATURE CITED

GREENE, H. W. & MCDIARMID, R. W. 2005. Wallace and Savage: heroes, theories, and venomous snake mimicry. Pp. 190208 in Donnelly, M. A., Crother, B. I., Guyer, C. E., Wake, M. H. & White, M. E. (eds.). Ecology and evolution in the tropics: a herpetological perspective. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
GUIMARÃES, M. & SAWAYA, R. J. 2011. Pretending to be venomous: is a snake's head shape a trustworthy signal to a predator? Journal of Tropical Ecology 27:437439.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
VALKONEN, J. K. & MAPPES, J. 2012. Comments on Guimarães & Sawaya (2011). Pretending to be venomous: is a snake's head shape a trustworthy signal to a predator? Journal of Tropical Ecology, 28:123124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
VALKONEN, J. K., NOKELAINEN, O. & MAPPES, J. 2011. Antipredatory function of head shape for vipers and their mimics. PloS ONE 6 (7): e22272.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed