许多动物使用根据其环境的视觉特征量身定制的伪装来避免被发现或识别。1,2,3这些特征的外观,然而,会受到当地照明条件波动的影响,尽管动态照明在许多陆地和水生环境中很常见,目前尚不清楚动态照明是否会影响动物采用的伪装模式。这里,我们测试水下动态照明的常见形式,由移动的光带组成,这些光带可以在光的强度中产生局部波动(\“水焦散\”),影响墨鱼的伪装。由于皮肤中的特殊色素细胞(色素细胞),6这些头足类软体动物可以根据其视觉场景的特征动态调整其身体图案。7,8,9尽管停留在平原或图案背景上的乌贼通常表现出均匀或破坏性的身体图案,分别,10,11,12在动态照明中暴露于这些背景会引起更强的破坏性模式,无论背景类型如何。动态照明增加了场景内的最大对比度级别,这些最大对比度水平与墨鱼破坏性伪装的程度有关。在动态照明的场景中采用破坏性伪装可能是自适应的,降低检测的可能性,或者,它可以表示对视觉处理的约束。
Many animals avoid detection or recognition using camouflage tailored to the visual features of their environment.1,2,3 The appearance of those features, however, can be affected by fluctuations in local lighting conditions, making them appear different over time.4,5 Despite dynamic lighting being common in many terrestrial and aquatic environments, it is unknown whether dynamic lighting influences the camouflage patterns that animals adopt. Here, we test whether a common form of underwater dynamic lighting, consisting of moving light bands that can create local fluctuations in the intensity of light (\"water caustics\"), affects the camouflage of cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis). Owing to specialized pigment cells (
chromatophores) in the skin,6 these cephalopod mollusks can dynamically adjust their body patterns in response to features of their visual scene.7,8,9 Although cuttlefish resting on plain or patterned backgrounds usually expressed uniform or disruptive body patterns, respectively,10,11,12 exposure to these backgrounds in dynamic lighting induced stronger disruptive patterns regardless of the background type. Dynamic lighting increased the maximum contrast levels within scenes, and these maximum contrast levels were associated with the degree of cuttlefish disruptive camouflage. This adoption of disruptive camouflage in dynamically lit scenes may be adaptive, reducing the likelihood of detection, or alternatively, it could represent a constraint on visual processing.