Sex differences in plumage color are common in bird species.Some bird species are regarded as sexually monochromatic in human visual systems,and in recent years,some species are found to be of cryptic(to human)sexual ...Sex differences in plumage color are common in bird species.Some bird species are regarded as sexually monochromatic in human visual systems,and in recent years,some species are found to be of cryptic(to human)sexual dichromatism by spectrophotometric techniques.However,the functions of plumage color are still less understood in these species.Here,we focused on plumage color traits in the Chestnut Thrush(Turdus rubrocanus),which is considered as a sexually monochromatic bird by human observers.We used spectrometer analyses and avian visual modeling to investigate the color traits of males and females,and whether these color traits are involved in assortative mating.We found that Chestnut Thrush showed sexual dichromatism in bill,throat and wing,and pairs mated assortatively with colorations of throat,chest,crown and wing.We also found that color of tarsus was different between two consecutive years.These results revealed that Chestnut Thrush is sexually dichromatic in the avian visual system,and plumage color traits play important roles in mate choice.展开更多
Low desiccation resistance of Drosophila ananassae reflects its rarity outside the humid tropics. However, the ability of this sensitive species to evolve under seasonally varying subtropical areas is largely unknown....Low desiccation resistance of Drosophila ananassae reflects its rarity outside the humid tropics. However, the ability of this sensitive species to evolve under seasonally varying subtropical areas is largely unknown. D. ananassae flies are mostly lighter during the rainy season but darker and lighter flies occur in the autumn season in northern India. We tested the hypothesis whether seasonally varying alternative body color phenotypes of D. ananassae vary in their levels of environmental stress tolerances and mating behavior. Thus, we investigated D. ananassae flies collected during rainy and autumn seasons for changes in body melanization and their genetic basis, desiccation-related traits, cold tolerance and mating propensity. On the basis of genetic crosses, we found total body color dimorphism consistent with a single gene model in both sexes olD. ananassae. A significant increase in the frequency of the dark morph was observed during the drier autumn season, and body color phenotypes showed significant deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, which suggests climatic selection plays a role. Resistance to desiccation as well as cold stress were two- to three-fold higher in the dark body color strain as compared with the light strain. On the basis of no-choice mating experiments, we observed significantly higher assortative matings between dark morphs under desiccation or cold stress, and between light morphs under hot or higher humidity conditions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the ecological significance of seasonally varying total body color dimorphism in a tropical species, D. ananassae.展开更多
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.32070452to YS)。
文摘Sex differences in plumage color are common in bird species.Some bird species are regarded as sexually monochromatic in human visual systems,and in recent years,some species are found to be of cryptic(to human)sexual dichromatism by spectrophotometric techniques.However,the functions of plumage color are still less understood in these species.Here,we focused on plumage color traits in the Chestnut Thrush(Turdus rubrocanus),which is considered as a sexually monochromatic bird by human observers.We used spectrometer analyses and avian visual modeling to investigate the color traits of males and females,and whether these color traits are involved in assortative mating.We found that Chestnut Thrush showed sexual dichromatism in bill,throat and wing,and pairs mated assortatively with colorations of throat,chest,crown and wing.We also found that color of tarsus was different between two consecutive years.These results revealed that Chestnut Thrush is sexually dichromatic in the avian visual system,and plumage color traits play important roles in mate choice.
文摘Low desiccation resistance of Drosophila ananassae reflects its rarity outside the humid tropics. However, the ability of this sensitive species to evolve under seasonally varying subtropical areas is largely unknown. D. ananassae flies are mostly lighter during the rainy season but darker and lighter flies occur in the autumn season in northern India. We tested the hypothesis whether seasonally varying alternative body color phenotypes of D. ananassae vary in their levels of environmental stress tolerances and mating behavior. Thus, we investigated D. ananassae flies collected during rainy and autumn seasons for changes in body melanization and their genetic basis, desiccation-related traits, cold tolerance and mating propensity. On the basis of genetic crosses, we found total body color dimorphism consistent with a single gene model in both sexes olD. ananassae. A significant increase in the frequency of the dark morph was observed during the drier autumn season, and body color phenotypes showed significant deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, which suggests climatic selection plays a role. Resistance to desiccation as well as cold stress were two- to three-fold higher in the dark body color strain as compared with the light strain. On the basis of no-choice mating experiments, we observed significantly higher assortative matings between dark morphs under desiccation or cold stress, and between light morphs under hot or higher humidity conditions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the ecological significance of seasonally varying total body color dimorphism in a tropical species, D. ananassae.
