ArticlePloS one2019
Benefits of zebra stripes: Behaviour of tabanid flies around zebras and horses.
Article in PloS one, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed.
- Fine stripe patterns disrupt honey bee landings via spatial aliasing.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2026Article
- Zebra stripes: the questions raised by the answers.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2025Review
- Visual antipredator effects of web flexing in an orb web spider, with special reference to web decorations.Die Naturwissenschaften · 2023Article
- Why don't horseflies land on zebras?The Journal of experimental biology · 2023Article
- Article
- Visual threats reduce blood-feeding and trigger escape responses in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Sunlit zebra stripes may confuse the thermal perception of blood vessels causing the visual unattractiveness of zebras to horseflies.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- First study on molecular detection of hemopathogens in tabanid flies (Diptera: Tabanidae) and cattle in Southern Thailand.Veterinary world · 2022Article
- Critical summer foraging tradeoffs in a subarctic ungulate.Ecology and evolution · 2021Article
- A new argument against cooling by convective air eddies formed above sunlit zebra stripes.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- The evolution of patterning during movement in a large-scale citizen science game.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Zebra stripes, tabanid biting flies and the aperture effect.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2020Article
- Coloration in Mammals.Trends in ecology & evolution · 2020Review
- Randomised Control Trial Comparing Cypermethrin-Based Preparations in the Prevention of Infectious Bovine Keratoconjunctivitis in Cattle.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2020Article
- Attractiveness of thermally different, uniformly black targets to horseflies:Royal Society open science · 2019Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Averting attack by biting flies is increasingly regarded as the evolutionary driver of zebra stripes, although the precise mechanism by which stripes ameliorate attack by ectoparasites is unknown. We examined the behaviour of tabanids (horse flies) in the vicinity of captive plains zebras and uniformly coloured domestic horses living on a horse farm in Britain. Observations showed that fewer tabanids landed on zebras than on horses per unit time, although rates of tabanid circling around or briefly touching zebra and horse pelage did not differ. In an experiment in which horses sequentially wore cloth coats of different colours, those wearing a striped pattern suffered far lower rates of tabanid touching and landing on coats than the same horses wearing black or white, yet there were no differences in attack rates to their naked heads. In separate, detailed video analyses, tabanids approached zebras faster and failed to decelerate before contacting zebras, and proportionately more tabanids simply touched rather than landed on zebra pelage in comparison to horses. Taken together, these findings indicate that, up close, striped surfaces prevented flies from making a controlled landing but did not influence tabanid behaviour at a distance. To counteract flies, zebras swished their tails and ran away from fly nuisance whereas horses showed higher rates of skin twitching. As a consequence of zebras' striping, very few tabanids successfully landed on zebras and, as a result of zebras' changeable behaviour, few stayed a long time, or probed for blood.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.