Antipredator Adaptations and Predator Avoidance by Two Color Morphs of the Eastern Red-Backed Salamander, Plethodon Cinereus

Venesky, Matthew D.; Anthony, Carl D.

doi:10.1655/0018-0831(2007)63[450:aaapab]2.0.co;2

Cited by 50 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…For example, Moreno (1989) reported that unstriped individuals of P. cinereus had a significantly higher incidence of tail breakage (a common measure of predation pressure) compared to striped individuals. Venesky & Anthony (2007) reported similar differences in tail breakage between colour morphs and also found differences in behaviour between morphs when encountering a snake predator in laboratory arenas.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 72%

Ecological separation in a polymorphic terrestrial salamander

Anthony

Venesky

Hickerson

2008

Journal of Animal Ecology

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Summary 1.When studying speciation, researchers commonly examine reproductive isolation in recently diverged populations. Polymorphic species provide an opportunity to examine the role of reproductive isolation in populations that may be in the process of divergence. 2. We examined a polymorphic population of Plethodon cinereus (red-backed salamanders) for evidence of sympatric ecological separation by colour morphology. Recent studies have correlated temperature and climate with colour morphology in this species, but no studies have looked at differences in diet or mate choice between colour morphs. We used artificial cover objects to assess salamander diet, mating preference and surface activity over a 2-year period at a field site in northeastern Ohio. 3. We detected differences in diet between two colour morphs, striped and unstriped. The diets of striped individuals were significantly more diverse and were made up of more profitable prey than the diets of unstriped salamanders. 4. Opposite sex pairs were made up of individuals of the same colour morph and striped males were found more often with larger females than were unstriped males. 5. We corroborate findings of earlier studies suggesting that the unstriped form is adapted to warmer conditions. Unstriped individuals were the first to withdraw from the forest floor as temperatures fell in the late fall. We found no evidence that the colour morphs responded differently to abiotic factors such as soil moisture and relative humidity, and responses to surface temperatures were also equivocal. 6. We conclude that the two colour morphs exhibit some degree of ecological separation and tend to mate assortatively, but are unlikely to be undergoing divergence given the observed frequency of intermorph pairings.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 72%

Ecological separation in a polymorphic terrestrial salamander

Anthony

Venesky

Hickerson

2008

Journal of Animal Ecology

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“…In other polymorphic species, morphs often differentiate along multiple ecological axes other than climate (Jones et al 1977, Hoffman and Blouin 2000, Roulin 2004). Previous work on the P. cinereus polymorphism has largely identified ways in which unstriped individuals are at a competitive disadvantage compared to striped individuals (Reiter et al 2014): they have a poorer quality diet (Anthony et al 2008, Stuczka et al 2016, higher levels of stress hormones (Davis and Milanovich 2010), and higher levels of predation (Lotter and Scott 1977, Moreno 1989, Venesky and Anthony 2007. Despite these apparent disadvantages, the unstriped morph has persisted over evolutionary time (Fisher-Reid and Wiens 2015), indicating that additional factors, such as the proposed ability to exploit warmer and drier microclimates (Lotter andScott 1977, Fisher-Reid et al 2013) possibly due to a lower metabolic rate (Moreno 1989, Petruzzi et al 2006, likely convey fitness benefits to unstriped individuals.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Salamander morph frequencies do not evolve as predicted in response to 40 years of climate change

et al. 2018

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The global climate is changing rapidly, yet biotic responses remain uncertain. Most studies focus on changes in species ranges or plastic responses like phenology, but adaptive evolution could be equally important. Studying evolutionary responses is challenging given limited historical data and a poor understanding of genetically variable traits under selection. We take advantage of a historical dataset to test for an adaptive response to climate change in a widespread, polymorphic amphibian, the eastern red‐backed salamander Plethodon cinereus. We resurveyed color morph frequencies across New England to test for an adaptive shift in response to climate change. We modeled historical and present‐day morph proportions as a function of climate and tested the accuracy of predictions both within and across different time periods. Our models showed moderate accuracy when predicting morph frequencies within time periods, but poor accuracy across time periods. Despite substantial changes in climate and significant relationships between morph frequency and climate variables within periods, we found no evidence for the predicted shift in morph frequencies across New England. The relationship between climate and color morph frequencies is likely more complex than originally suggested, potentially involving the interplay of additional factors such as microclimate variation, land use changes, and frequency‐dependent selection. Model extrapolation and changes in the correlation structure of climate variables also likely contributed to poor predictive ability. Evolution could provide a means to moderate the effects of climate change on many species. However, we often do not understand the direct links between climate variation, traits, and fitness. Therefore, forecasting climate‐mediated evolution remains an ongoing and important challenge for understanding climate change threats to species.

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“…A wide variety of animals will prey on this salamander, including birds, small mammals, and snakes (Casper 2005; Anthony and Pfingsten 2013). Although colour discrimination by these predators could be limited at night, some studies have suggested that bird and snake predators can nevertheless differentiate coloration in P. cinereus, probably when foraging in the leaf litter during the day (Brodie and Brodie 1980;Venesky and Anthony 2007). Both silver-white variants described here appeared in good physical condition among conspecifics of the redbacked morph.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 73%

Silver-white Variants of the Eastern Red-backed Salamander, <i>Plethodon cinereus</i>, from Eastern Canada

Ouellet¹,

Moore²

2016

Can Field Nat

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. 2016. Silver-white variants of the Eastern Red-backed Salamander, Plethodon cinereus, from eastern Canada. Canadian Field-Naturalist 130(2): 133-136.The Eastern Red-backed Salamander (Plethodon cinereus) is well known for its colour polymorphism, which includes 8 colour phenotypes: the red-backed (striped), lead-backed (unstriped), and erythristic morphs, as well as the iridistic, albino, leucistic, amelanistic, and melanistic anomalies. Among these, the prevalence and geographic distribution of rare morphs have received little attention. In this article, we report 2 occurrences of silver-white variants of the red-backed morph of P. cinereus from Québec, Canada. To our knowledge, these variations in stripe colour on the red-backed phenotype represent the first 2 documented mentions for eastern Canada.

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Antipredator Adaptations and Predator Avoidance by Two Color Morphs of the Eastern Red-Backed Salamander, Plethodon Cinereus

Cited by 50 publications

References 38 publications

Ecological separation in a polymorphic terrestrial salamander

Ecological separation in a polymorphic terrestrial salamander

Salamander morph frequencies do not evolve as predicted in response to 40 years of climate change

Silver-white Variants of the Eastern Red-backed Salamander, <i>Plethodon cinereus</i>, from Eastern Canada

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