Talk:Aposematism

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To-do list for Aposematism: edit · history · watch · refresh

Here are some tasks you can do:
  • Verify:
    • More inline references are needed
    • Expand:
    • Clarify whether or not advertising of uncatchibility is a form of aposematism
    • Discuss related signals that are not warnings (advertising colorations functioning in social cohesion or mating ('episematism'), for example), and warning signals within species.
    • Include images of non-animals (e.g. plants) and non-visual forms of aposematism (sound, smell). An audio file may be helpful if something suitable is available (though a smell file is probably impossible with current technology).
      • SIMCHA LEV-YADUN, GIDI NE'EMAN (2004) When may green plants be aposematic? Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 81 (3), 413–416. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.2004.00307.x
Priority 4  

[edit] Merge from Warning colouration

...which is the same thing as aposematism. There is already a redirect from Warning coloration. Pan Dan 21:01, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Given that the alternate spelling Warning coloration is a redirect, I would say it's a pretty clear case for a redirect for Warning colouration too. --BillC 22:43, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

I turned warning colouration into a redirect to here. There was no information in that article missing from this article, so there was no need for a merge. Thanks --liquidGhoul 09:35, 26 September 2006 (UTC)
I just found another very short article advertising colouration which I've merged as well. It really pays to create as many redirects as you can think of for an article so this sort of thing doesn't happen. Speaking of such, I'll create one for the other spelling of the same article so an American speller doesn't do the same thing. Richard001 05:59, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Scope of aposematism

Does aposematism include all forms of signalling that predation is unprofitable, or is it limited in some way, e.g. static signals, visual signals etc? For example is stotting a form of aposematism? We need a citation for the definition to clear this up. I currently use it as a subsection of 'advertising unprofitability' in the antipredator adaptation section of predation, but if there is no distinction I may as well create a redirect for the term and rename the section 'aposematism'. Richard001 05:59, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

I think the definition is now adequate and has adequate citations so I have removed the citation needed tag. Clearly aposematism is more than just warning coloration as it can include sounds and smells, but whether it extends as far as stotting is an interesting question. It seems to me stotting is more a "you can't catch me so don't bother trying" kind of message where as most aposematic signals say "Warning - you don't want to catch me because I am either dangerous or inedible" which is not quite the same thing... Rusty Cashman 22:35, 18 June 2007 (UTC)
Well, going by the definition given here, which I can only assume is generally agreed upon, any signal of unprofitablity is aposematism, so stotting (and similar behaviors, e.g. lizards doing 'pushups') would be included. Chasing a prey item that is highly unlikely to be captured is certainly a dangerous proposition, and has only evolved because those predators that didn't learn to take notice of the signal were more likely to die or leave fewer offspring. There is a slight difference here though - in one case it is profitable to eat the prey but unprofitable to capture it, while in other cases it is unprofitable to eat the prey even if it's presented on a silver platter (unless perhaps it has its sting taken out or is cooked, perhaps). This issue needs to be explained in the article. Richard001 00:44, 22 July 2007 (UTC)