
Felipe Malheiros GawryszewskiUniversity of Brasília | UnB · Department of Zoology
Felipe Malheiros Gawryszewski
PhD
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32
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Publications (32)
Female‐biased sexual size dimorphism stands as a widespread evolutionary pattern. Fecundity selection, favouring larger females with greater reproductive output, is a leading explanation. However, larger body sizes demand greater energy intake, potentially hindering the evolution of extreme female sizes. Thus, the evolution of more lucrative foragi...
Animal colouration may evolve due to its effects on predator avoidance, reproduction and thermoregulation, and is likely influenced by the organism’s diel activity. The dung beetle species of the Phanaeini tribe (Coleoptera: Scarabaeinae) show a wide variety of times of activity and pre-copulatory behaviours. Here we tested the effect of time of ac...
Physicochemical properties may affect the effectiveness of chemical defenses against predators but are not considered objectively in behavioral experiments with
arthropods. We aimed to test if the following properties of chemical defenses influence predator deterrence: lipophilicity; volatility; prey model used in experiments; prey aggregation; qua...
Color in animals responds to selective pressures and mediates the relationship between organism and environment. Reef fishes have the amplest variety of pigment cell types. This color patterns’ variety may function as camouflage and be related to spatial use. We tested the hypothesis that the coloration of reef fish relates to water column stratum...
Studies on animal camouflage offer some of the most compelling examples of microevolution via natural selection. If selection favouring camouflage is indeed widespread, the colour of the vegetation might act as a filter by removing non-camouflaged species. Consequently, the colouration and diversity of colours of animal communities may follow simil...
Body temperature can strongly influence fitness. Some Sun-exposed ectotherms thermoregulate by adjusting body posture according to the Sun's position. In these species, body elongation should reduce the risk of heat stress by allowing the exposure of a smaller body area to sunlight. Therefore, selection should favour more elongated bodies in Sun-ex...
Conspicuous colours in animals are usually explained by mate attraction, predator avoidance and prey attraction. Predators may lure prey by mimicking food or other resources. Alternatively, some animals avoid predation by visually signalling unpalatability to predators. The evolution of a signal is affected by receiver processing mechanisms. Theref...
Lures are deceptive strategies that exploit sensory biases in prey, usually mimicking a prey’s mate or food item. Several predators exploit plant–pollinator systems, where visual signals are an essential part of interspecific interactions. Many diurnal, and even nocturnal, orb-web spiders present conspicuous body coloration or bright color patches....
Predation avoidance is a primary factor influencing survival. Therefore, any trait that affects the risk of predation, such as camouflage, is expected to be under selection pressure. Background matching (homochromy) limits habitat use, especially if the habitat is heterogeneous. Another camouflage mechanism is disruptive coloration, which reduces t...
Background matching and disruptive coloration are common strategies used by animals to increase concealment, whereas motion-dazzle may prevent capture after recognition. Studies have related background matching to habitat dependency and survival success, whereas for animals with highly contrasting patterns it has been shown that they are able to ex...
Several Cerrado tree species have traits and structures that protect from fires. The effectiveness of a trait depends on the fire regime, especially the frequency. We used Vochysia elliptica , a common Cerrado tree, as a model to test whether different fire frequencies alter crown architecture and flower, fruit and seed production.
We analysed the...
Color polymorphisms have been traditionally attributed to apostatic selection. The perception of color depends on the visual system of the observer. Theoretical models predict that differently perceived degrees of conspicuousness by two predator-prey species may cause the evolution of polymorphisms in the presence of anti-apostatic and apostatic se...
The development of color vision models has allowed the appraisal of color vision independent of the human experience. These models are now widely used in ecology and evolution studies. However, in common scenarios of color measurement, color vision models may generate spurious results. Here I present a guide to color vision modeling (Chittka (1992,...
The sensory drive theory predicts that signals, sensory systems, and signaling behavior should coevolve. Variation in the sensory systems of prey and predators may explain the diversity of color signals, such as color polymorphism. The spider Gasteracantha cancriformis (Araneidae) possesses several conspicuous color morphs. The aim of the present s...
Despite being widely known as a diverse group of predators, spiders are also a regular prey item of several vertebrate and invertebrate predators. Some of these organisms (e.g., wasp species and araneophagic spiders) are spider-hunting specialists. A number of morphological structures and behaviours in spiders have been proposed to be anti-predator...
The evolution of a visual signal will be affected by signaller and receiver behaviour, and by the physical properties of the environment where the signal is displayed. Crab spiders are typical sit-and-wait predators found in diverse ambush sites, such as tree bark, foliage and flowers. Some of the flower-dweller species present a UV(+) -white visua...
The astounding diversity of animal coloration is indicative of a wide variety of selection pressures. Despite great interest in adaptive function, detailed understanding of the constituent elements of colour traits is lacking for many systems. Such information is important in allowing more accurate appraisals of colour variation and its potential p...
Crab spiders (Thomisidae) are known by their ability to change their body colouration via change in epithelial pigments. However, the crab spider genus Stephanopis appears to match the colouration of the bark they are sitting on by having debris attached to its dorsal cuticle. The functional morphology, colouration, and evolution of this phenomenon...
The mechanisms and functions of reversible colour change in arthropods are highly diverse despite, or perhaps due to, the presence of an exoskeleton. Physiological colour changes, which have been recorded in 90 arthropod species, are rapid and are the result of changes in the positioning of microstructures or pigments, or in the refractive index of...
Crab spiders are formidable predators of many insects. Their colour is particularly fascinating and we have an excellent account of the foraging ecology of some species. A more recent research focus has been the prevalence of UV reflection in some crab spider species. In this chapter we discuss the methods of quantifying colour and colour contrast...
Sit-and-wait predators have evolved several traits that increase the probability of encountering prey, including lures that attract prey. Although most crab spiders (Thomisidae) are known by their ability to change colour in order to match the background, a few use a different strategy. They are UV-reflective, creating a colour contrast against UV-...
The presence of conspicuous colouration in predators is puzzling because natural selection is expected to favour cryptic or disruptive colouration, making predators less detectable by prey. However, the prey attraction hypothesis proposes that conspicuous colour patterns in spiders increase their foraging success by luring prey. Using manipulative...
1. Australian crab spiders exploit the plant–pollinator mutualism by reflecting UV light that attracts pollinators to the flowers where they sit. However, spider UV reflection seems to vary broadly within and between individuals and species, and we are still lacking any comparative studies of prey and/or predator behaviour towards spider colour var...
Several orb-web spiders build conspicuous decorations in their webs. The prey attraction hypothesis proposes that decorations increase spider foraging success by attracting prey, and that attraction is linked to UV reflectance. Alternatively, the web advertisement hypothesis proposes that decorations are a signal that advertises the presence of the...
Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia Animal, 2007. Entre as hipóteses mais discutidas para explicar padrões conspícuos no corpo das aranhas ou decorações em suas teias estão a atração de presas e a proteção da teia. Gasteracantha cancriformis é uma espécie de aranha...