Seeing orange: prawns tap into a pre-existing sensory bias of the Trinidadian guppy.

Sensory bias, a predisposition towards certain signals, has been implicated in the origin of mate preferences in some species. A risk associated with these biases is that they can be co-opted by predators as sensory lures. Here we propose that the orange spots on the brown pincers of a diurnal, predatory species of prawn function as lures for Trinidadian guppies, which have a sensory bias for orange.

Pigments, patterns, and fish behavior.

Color patterns in fish are often multicomponent signals, composed of pigment-based and structural color patches that can be used to communicate within species, in both inter- and intrasexual interactions, and between species. In this review, we discuss some of the roles played by pigment-based elements of color pattern. We begin by discussing general forms of coloration, classifying them by appearance (e.