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The Evolution Of Virtual Ecology, Alan Kamil, Alan B. Bond

Alan Bond Publications

The relationship between the perceptual and cognitive abilities of predatory birds and the appearance of their insect prey has long been of intense interest to evolutionary biologists. One classic example is crypsis, the correspondence between the appearance of prey species and of the substrates on which they rest which has long been considered a prime illustration of effects of natural selection, in this case operating against individuals that were more readily detected by predators (Poulton 1890; Wallace 1891). But the influences of predator psychology are broader, more complex, and more subtle than just pattern matching. Many cryptic prey, including the …