ReviewPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2009
Non-visual crypsis: a review of the empirical evidence for camouflage to senses other than vision.
Review in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers.
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Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed.
- Cryptic Vocal Communication in the Proboscis Bat (Rhynchonycteris naso).Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2026Article
- The role of signal in saltatory pursuit of cryptic stationary targets.Movement ecology · 2025Article
- Variation in sexual signals and defensive strategies elicits receiver-dependent shifts in attractiveness.The Journal of experimental biology · 2025Article
- Coevolutionary patterns between coloration and diel activity in moths.Royal Society open science · 2025Article
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- Dazzling damselfish: investigating motion dazzle as a defence strategy in humbug damselfish (PeerJ · 2024Article
- Effects of genotype and host environment on the cuticular hydrocarbon profiles ofProceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Preferred shallow-water nursery sites provide acoustic crypsis to southern right whale mother-calf pairs.Royal Society open science · 2022Article
- Hiding in plain smell.eLife · 2020Article
- Finding a signal hidden among noise: how can predators overcome camouflage strategies?Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2020Review
- Acoustic crypsis in communication by North Atlantic right whale mother-calf pairs on the calving grounds.Biology letters · 2019Article
- The key role of behaviour in animal camouflage.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2019Article
- Drosophila melanogaster cloak their eggs with pheromones, which prevents cannibalism.PLoS biology · 2019Article
- Heaviside's dolphins (Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2018Article
- Chemical camouflage: a key process in shaping an ant-treehopper and fig-fig wasp mutualistic network.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- Oilbirds produce echolocation signals beyond their best hearing range and adjust signal design to natural light conditions.Royal Society open science · 2017Article
- Pigmentation plasticity enhances crypsis in larval newts: associated metabolic cost and background choice behaviour.Scientific reports · 2017Article
- Disturbed flow in an aquatic environment may create a sensory refuge for aggregated prey.PeerJ · 2017Article
- Cuticular Lipids as a Cross-Talk among Ants, Plants and Butterflies.International journal of molecular sciences · 2016Review
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Abstract
I review the evidence that organisms have adaptations that confer difficulty of detection by predators and parasites that seek their targets primarily using sensory systems other than vision. In other words, I will answer the question of whether crypsis is a concept that can usefully be applied to non-visual sensory perception. Probably because vision is such an important sensory system in humans, research in this field is sparse. Thus, at present we have very few examples of chemical camouflage, and even these contain some ambiguity in deciding whether they are best seen as examples of background matching or mimicry. There are many examples of organisms that are adaptively silent at times or in locations when or where predation risk is higher or in response to detection of a predator. By contrast, evidence that the form (rather than use) of vocalizations and other sound-based signals has been influenced by issues of reducing detectability to unintended receivers is suggestive rather than conclusive. There is again suggestive but not completely conclusive evidence for crypsis against electro-sensing predators. Lastly, mechanoreception is highly understudied in this regard, but there are scattered reports that strongly suggest that some species can be thought of as being adapted to be cryptic in this modality. Hence, I conclude that crypsis is a concept that can usefully be applied to senses other than vision, and that this is a field very much worthy of more investigation.
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