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Updated: Dec 1, 2025

Manipulation of Color Patterns in Jumping Spiders for Use in Behavioral Experiments
Published on: May 21, 2019
Phaeomelanin matters: Redness associates with inter-individual differences in behaviour and feather corticosterone in
Ángel Cruz-Miralles1,2, Jesús M Avilés2, Olivier Chastel3
1Departamento de Anatomía, Biología Celular y Zoología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Extremadura, Badajoz, España.
Abstract:
Individuals within populations often show consistent variation in behavioural and physiological traits which are frequently inter-correlated, potentially leading to phenotypic integration. Understanding the mechanisms behind such integration is a key task in evolutionary ecology, and melanin based colouration has been suggested to play a pivotal role. In birds, most of plumage colour variation is determined by two types of melanin, eumelanin and phaeomelanin, but the role of phaeomelanin in avian phenotype integration has been barely investigated. Here, we test for covariation between phaeomelanin-based colouration, behavioural traits (i.e. nest territoriality, aggressiveness, breath rate and parental behaviour) and corticosterone in feathers in the polymorphic scops owl Otus scops, a bird species in which more phaeomelanic individuals display reddish colourations. In males, we observed that reddish males took longer to return to their nests and showed higher levels of feather CORT than more greyish ones. Behaviour and feather CORT were not associated to plumage colour in females. The found associations between redness, behaviour and feather CORT in males, but not in females, might suggest the existence of a sex-specific integrated phaeomelanic phenotype in scops owls.
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