Intra- and interspecific variation in flower color is a hallmark of angiosperm diversity. The evolutionary forces underlying the variety of flower colors can be nearly as diverse as the colors themselves. In addition to pollinator preferences, non-pollinator agents of selection can have a major influence on the evolution of flower color polymorphisms, especially when the pigments in question ar...

The colors of fleshy fruits are considered to be a signal to seed-dispersing animals, but their diversity remains poorly understood. Using an avian color space to derive a sensory morphospace for fruit color, we tested four hypotheses of fruit color diversity: fruit colors occupy a limited area of the color space; they are less diverse than flower colors; fruit colors within localities are simi...

Several publications in recent years have given conflicting reports upon the inheritance of shank color. Yellow shank color has been reported to be inherited in a simple Mendelian fashion, the sex-linked gene for yellow shank color ( U ) being dominant to its allele (y) , the gene for blue shank color. In contrast to this, the gene for yellow shank color has been reported to be autosomal, the r...

AIM AND OBJECTIVE To compare and evaluate the effect of ultraviolet (UV) stabilizers (Chimassorb 81 and Uvinul 5050) on the color change of pigmented elastomer. MATERIALS AND METHODS Two pigments - Red (P112 Brilliant Red) and Yellow (P106 Yellow) and two UV stabilizers Chimassorb 81 and Uvinul 5050 were studied. A total of six groups of 10 samples each were fabricated using a combination of ...

The perceived color of an object depends on its spectral reflectance and the spectral composition of the illuminant. Thus when the illumination changes, the light reflected from the object also varies. This would result in a different color sensation if no color constancy mechanism is put in place-that is, the ability to form consistent representation of colors across various illuminants and ba...

Australian crab spiders Thomisus spectabilis ambush pollinating insects, such as honeybees (Apis mellifera) on flowers, and can change their body colour between yellow and white. It is traditionally assumed that the spiders change their colour to match the flower colour, thus rendering them cryptic to insect prey. Here, we test this assumption combining state-of-the-art knowledge of bee vision ...

The tremendous diversity in flower color among angiosperms implies that there have been numerous evolutionary transitions in this character. The conventional wisdom is that a large proportion of these transitions reflect adaptation to novel pollinator regimes. By contrast, recent research suggests that many of these transitions may instead have been driven by selection imposed by nonpollinator ...

Purposeful attraction and aggregation of adult Coccinellidae at target sites would be useful for sampling purposes and pest suppression. We field-tested 1) lures in yellow and black pyramidal traps and 2) pyramidal traps that had been painted one or two colors (without lures) to determine if lures or trap color affected capture of adult Coccinellidae. In only one experiment with lures did a sin...

The tea aphid, Toxoptera aurantii Boyer (Hemiptera: Aphididae), is a major pest of the tea plant, Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze (Theaceae). The attraction of the aphids to different colors and volatile compounds from tea shoots was investigated. Fourteen compounds were identified using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry from headspace samples of intact tea shoot volatiles (ITSV). Electroph...

Measurements of contrast sensitivity are well established for modulations in luminance, red-green and yellow-blue color directions in color space. Relatively less work has been carried out, however, to measure contrast sensitivity in other color directions or to assess the effect of the average color of the stimulus has been largely ignored. In this study we have measured conventional contrast-...