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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 8, 2026

Manipulation of Color Patterns in Jumping Spiders for Use in Behavioral Experiments

Manipulation of Color Patterns in Jumping Spiders for Use in Behavioral Experiments

Published on: May 21, 2019

Conspicuous plumage colours are highly variable.

Kaspar Delhey^1,2, Beatrice Szecsenyi³, Shinichi Nakagawa⁴

¹School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, 3800, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia kaspar.delhey@monash.edu.

Proceedings. Biological Sciences

|January 20, 2017

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Ornamental traits in birds remain highly variable, challenging evolutionary theory. Conspicuous plumage colors show the most variation, suggesting conspicuousness is key to maintaining genetic diversity in these traits.

Keywords:

carotenoid discriminability melanin sexual selection structural variation

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Last Updated: Mar 8, 2026

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Area of Science:

Evolutionary biology
Animal coloration
Quantitative genetics

Background:

Elaborate ornamental traits often face directional selection, theoretically reducing genetic variation.
Despite theoretical predictions, many ornamental traits exhibit substantial intraspecific variability.
Understanding the maintenance of genetic variation in evolving traits is a central question in evolutionary biology.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the factors maintaining genetic variation in bird plumage coloration.
To test if intraspecific variation in plumage color is linked to trait elaboration and condition dependence.
To identify characteristics of ornamental traits associated with high levels of genetic variability.

Main Methods:

Assessed intraspecific variation in over 100 plumage colors across 55 bird species.
Quantified trait elaboration using degree of sexual dichromatism and conspicuousness.
Evaluated condition dependence based on the mechanism of color production.

Main Results:

Conspicuous colors exhibited the highest levels of intraspecific variation.
Conspicuousness was the strongest predictor of color variability, explaining a significant portion of the variation.
Sexual dichromatism and color production mechanisms did not significantly predict variability after accounting for conspicuousness.

Conclusions:

Conspicuousness is a key factor in maintaining genetic variation in bird plumage coloration.
High variability in conspicuous colors may result from increased production costs, sensitivity to production disruptions, or perceptual challenges.
Psychophysical effects related to discriminating elaborate colors might constrain trait exaggeration.