This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. This is version 1 of this Preprint.
Downloads
Supplementary Files
Authors
Abstract
Colour polymorphism, the presence of multiple colour variants within a population, is a common example of intraspecific phenotypic variation and has served as a model for studying drivers of diversity. Climatic factors can influence the distribution and abundance of colour variants, yet research often focuses on lineages where sexual selection covaries with the climate-colouration associations. Research has also focussed disproportionately on vertebrates and a few insects, neglecting other taxa where polymorphism is widespread, like arachnids. Here, we investigated climatic factors influencing colour variation in a widely distributed colour polymorphic spider using a combination of controlled experiments, field measurements and tests for macroecological associations. We showed in the lab and field that dark colouration is unlikely to provide biologically relevant thermal benefits; yet different colour morphs occupy distinct climatic niches across Australia. Precipitation, rather than temperature, appears to be the strongest driver of colour morph frequencies: there were higher frequencies of dark individuals in regions with higher precipitation while orange individuals were more common in drier areas. We discuss potential mechanisms related to background matching or pathogen protection in humid environments. Our findings highlight the role of climatic factors in shaping colour variation, and demonstrate the value of combining macroecological, field, and laboratory approaches.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.32942/X25S6C
Subjects
Life Sciences
Keywords
Colour variation, GlogerĀ“s rule, humidity, geographic variation, thermal melanism hypothesis, GlogerĀ“s rule, Humidity, Geographic variation, thermal melanism hypothesis
Dates
Published: 2024-11-03 01:12
License
CC BY Attribution 4.0 International
Additional Metadata
Language:
English
Conflict of interest statement:
None
Data and Code Availability Statement:
All the scripts and information about the data are available here: https://github.com/fcsalgado/christmas_spider_climate
There are no comments or no comments have been made public for this article.