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The snake head-shape signal: a reply to Valkonen & Mappes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 December 2011

Murilo Guimarães  and
Ricardo J. Sawaya
Murilo Guimarães*
Affiliation:
Departamento de Biologia Animal, Programa de Pós Graduação em Ecologia, Instituto de Biologia, Caixa Postal 6109, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 13083-970, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil
Ricardo J. Sawaya
Affiliation:
Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Rua Prof. Artur Riedel, 275, 09972-270, Diadema, São Paulo, Brazil
*
1Corresponding author. Email: mu.guima@gmail.com
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Extract

It has already been suggested that snake head triangulation might be related to mimicry of the head shape of vipers (Greene & McDiarmid 2005, and references therein). Until very recently, this hypothesis has never been experimentally tested. We first tested the hypothesis of snakes’ head shape as a dangerous signal to predators by use of plasticine models (Guimarães & Sawaya 2011). We suggested in that study that shape of the head does not confer advantage itself but may work in synergy with a set of traits including colour and behavioural displays that warn and discourage predator attacks.

Keywords

defencehead triangulationmimicrymorphologyplasticine replicaspredationsnakes
Type
Short Communication
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , January 2012 , pp. 125 - 126
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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References

LITERATURE CITED

GREENE, H. W. & MCDIARMID, R. W. 2005. Wallace and Savage: heroes, theories, and venomous snake mimicry. Pp. 190–208 in Donnelly, M. A., Crother, B. I., Guyer, C. E., Wake, M. H. & White, M. E. (eds.). Ecology and evolution in the tropics: a herpetological perspective. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
GUIMARÃES, M. & SAWAYA, R. J. 2011. Pretending to be venomous: is a snake's head shape a trustworthy signal to a predator? Journal of Tropical Ecology 27:437–439.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
VALKONEN, J. K. & MAPPES, J. 2012. Comments on Guimarães & Sawaya (2011). Pretending to be venomous: is a snake's head shape a trustworthy signal to a predator? Journal of Tropical Ecology, 28:123–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
VALKONEN, J. K., NOKELAINEN, O. & MAPPES, J. 2011. Antipredatory function of head shape for vipers and their mimics. PloS ONE 6 (7): e22272.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed