Effects of background color on pigmentation, morphological traits, and behavior in the European tree frog (Hyla arborea, Hylidae, Anura) tadpoles

What is it about?

Amphibian tadpoles can avoid threats by changing their coloration, shape modification, and through cryptic behavior. In our paper we wanted to see how different background colorations affect skin pigmentation, body length, body and tail shape, and behavior of European tree frog tadpoles. Our results suggest that tadpoles can rapidly change pigmentation levels in order to blend in with their environment, but their ability to match white background is poor. Different background colorations do not have an effect on variation in body length but provoke some degree of changes in body and tail shape. We also found out that tadpoles actively chose appropriate background to maximize crypsis.

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