Animals can make use of camouflage to reduce the likelihood of visual detection or recognition and thus improve their chances of survival. Background matching, where body colouration is closely matched to the surrounding substrate, is one form of camouflage. Hermit crabs have the opportunity to choose their camouflage independently of body colouration as they inhabit empty gastropod shells, making them ideal to study their choice of camouflage. We used 3D-printed artificial shells of varying contrasts against a grey substrate to test whether hermit crabs prefer shells that they perceive as less conspicuous. Contrast-minimising shells were chosen for Weber contrasts stronger than -0.5. However, in looming experiments, animals responded to contrasts as weak as -0.2, indicating that while they can detect differences between shells and the background, they are only motivated to move into those shells when the alternatives contrast strongly. This suggests a trade-off between camouflage and vulnerability introduced by switching shells.
Despite several decades of active research, there are still substantial gaps in the knowledge of parasitoid wasps in Australia, with many families and genera yet to be revised using modern approaches and only a fraction of the estimated fauna currently described. The genus Glyptapanteles Ashmead, 1904 is a member of the subfamily Microgastrinae (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) and all species in the subfamily are lepidopteran parasitoids. The genus previously contained only three species known from Australia: G. deliasa Austin & Dangerfield, 1992, G. drioplanetus Fagan-Jeffries & Austin, 2021 and G. mnesampela Austin, 2000. To undertake a revision of this morphologically-conserved group in Australia, we used a combination of molecular (cytochrome oxidase subunit one (COI) and wingless genes) and minimal morphological data to delimit and describe an additional 31 species: G. austini Fagan-Jeffries & Bird sp. nov. and the following 30 species all authored by Fagan-Jeffries, Bird & Austin: G. albigena sp. nov., G. andamookaensis sp. nov., G. arcanus sp. nov., G. aspersus sp. nov., G. austrinus sp. nov., G. baylessi sp. nov., G. bradfordae sp. nov., G. cooperi sp. nov., G. doreyi sp. nov., G. dowtoni sp. nov., G. eburneus sp. nov., G. erucadesolator sp. nov., G. ferrugineus sp. nov., G. foraminous sp. nov., G. goodwinnoakes sp. nov., G. guzikae sp. nov., G. harveyi sp. nov., G. kingae sp. nov., G. kittelae sp. nov., G. kurandaensis sp. nov., G. lambkinae sp. nov., G. lessardi sp. nov., G. mouldsi sp. nov., G. niveus sp. nov., G. rixi sp. nov., G. rodriguezae sp. nov., G. ruhri sp. nov., G. sanniopolus sp. nov., G. vergrandiacus sp. nov. and G. wrightae sp. nov. We provide a key to species groups and to the species able to be identified on morphological characters alone. Additionally, we provide a brief discussion of the difficulties in describing small, morphologically conserved wasps and the challenges associated with revising the taxonomy of hyperdiverse taxa in the context of the planned mission of Taxonomy Australia to accelerate the documentation of Australia’s biodiversity.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.