Affiliation:
1. Independent researcher
Abstract
Abstract
The functions of bright bands in coral and other snakes have long been a puzzle. A common opinion is that coral snakes display aposematic marks and that other red and black banded snakes in the Americas are mimics of coral snakes. In two previous reviews, I challenged this prevailing opinion and showed that red and bands are probably defensive against snake predators. Here, I offer a plausible mechanisms through which red and bands could be protective against ophidian predators: the function of bands is to interfere with the focusing ability of snakes, which eyes, as in fish, rely on a ball lens that moves back and forth, a peculiarity among terrestrial vertebrates. Simulations show how the spherical aberrations created by ball lenses produce local maxima in contrast when out of focus, which would feel in focus. I conjecture that red targets specific visual receptors in snakes active in low light: these receptors would have a slow and saturating response. This conjecture is justified by the lability of vision in snakes and the overabundance of red light in dim light. Those conjectures allow precise and well-respected predictions and credibly explain a wide range of observations, such as the geographical repartition of tricolour snakes, the evolution of triadal patterns, the evolution of specific triadal-like patterns in some Erythrolamprus, and the repeated evolution of black and white banded snakes with a red dorsal line. Fish eyes have similar optics, and the function of the ubiquitous fish bands could likewise be to interfere with the vision of predators.
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Subject
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
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