Background evolution in camouflage systems: A predator-prey/pollinator-flower game

A common predator or anti-predator strategy involves camouflage based on background matching. In some systems, the background is an organism whose fitness is affected by the predator-prey interaction. In these cases, the phenotype of the background species may evolve to affect the degree of background matching in the predator-prey interaction. For example, some flower species (the background) are inhabited by camouflaged ambush predators that attack visiting pollinators. These flowers have a fitness interest in the outcome of the predator-prey interaction because flowers depend on pollinator visitations for reproduction. Therefore, floral colour might evolve relative to predator colour so as to influence the detectability of resident predators. I have created a three-player game, based on Signal Detection Theory, to model the co-evolution of predator and prey/pollinator behavioural strategies with floral colour. This model makes two general predictions: (1) Constraints on predator distributions favour the evolution of flowers that match the predators' colour because they prevent predators from overexploiting these flowers; (2) factors that produce less discriminating pollinators also favour the evolution of flowers that match the predators' colour because these pollinators are willing to land on these flowers even if the safety of the flower is in doubt. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.