Overview
I have broad interests in behavioural ecology and evolutionary biology, but am especially fascinated by animal communication and visual signalling.
Before beginning my PhD, I worked as a research assistant, studying first camouflage in cuttlefish, then parental behaviour in burying beetles. As part of my BBSRC funding, I also completed a short rotation project in the Psychology Department at the University of Exeter, focusing on edge perception and flight behaviour in bumblebees. Since then, the central theme of my research has been coloration and visual communiation in Lepidoptera. My PhD investigated the form and function of warning signals in day-flying burnet moths (Lepiodptera: Zygaenidae), focusing in particular on the question of quantitative signal honesty in these species. As a research assistant working with Dr Jolyon Troscianko, I worked on the effects of artificial lighting on the visual ecology of hawkmoths, and the role of high-contrast markings in butterflies in deflecting predator attacks. In my current role as a post-doctoral reserch associate in the Sensory Ecology and Evolution group, my research focuses on disentangling the relative benefits of generalist and specialist background-matching camouflage strategies for prey in complex natural enviornments.
Aside from academic research, I regularly write popular science articles for the MRC’s Biological Picture of the Day website, and have published a children's book on the visual defences of moths and butterflies.
Broad research specialisms:
- Behavioural Ecology
- Sensory Ecology
Qualifications
2018: PhD (University of Exeter)
2016: MA (University of Cambridge)
2012 : BA Hons (1st class) in Natural Sciences – Zoology (Girton College, University of Cambridge)
Research
Research projects
Project Title: Insect warning signals and predator vision
Supervisors: Martin Stevens and Jon Blount
Funding Body: BBSRC SWDTP
Project Description:
This project examined the form and functon of warning colouration in Lepidoptera, with a particular emphasis on day-flying burnet moths (Zygaenidae). My research combined photography & image analysis, toxin quantification and predation experiments in the field, to investigate signal honesty in the six-spot burnet Zygaena filipendulae and related species.
Project Title: Hawkmoth visual ecology under artificial lights
Collaborators: Jolyon Troscianko, Kevin Gaston, Jonathan Bennie, Emma Rosenfeld
Project Description:
Artificial lighting is a growing threat for natural systems, with the potential to interfere with the visually-guided behaviours of many species. Here we focus on a species with impressive and well-studied nocturnal visual capabilities, the elephant hawkmoth Deilephila elpenor, and use low light visual modelling to investigate the impact of different types and intensities of artificial lighting on key aspects of its visual ecology: flower detection for pollination, intra-specific signalling, and detection by potential predators.
Project Title: How to optimise imperfect camouflage
Principal Investigator: Martin Stevens
Collaborators: Anna Hughes, Lina Arenas
Funding Body: BBSRC
Project Description:
This project investigates the effectiveness of generalist and specialist background-matching strategies for prey occuring on multiple distinct backgrounds, and complex natural habitats. To test how quickly specialist and generalist targets are detected, we are using a series of online and field-based search tasks wih human volunteers. Play our latest game here.
Publications
Key publications | Publications by category | Publications by year
Publications by category
Journal articles
Caro T, Argueta Y, Briolat ES, Bruggink J, Kasprowsky M, Lake J, Mitchell MJ, Richardson S, How M (2019). Benefits of zebra stripes: Behaviour of tabanid flies around zebras and horses.
PLoS ONE,
14(2).
Abstract:
Benefits of zebra stripes: Behaviour of tabanid flies around zebras and horses
© 2019 Caro et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. 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.
Abstract.
Briolat E, Zagrobelny M, Olsen C, Blount J, Stevens M (2019). No evidence of quantitative signal honesty across species of aposematic burnet moths (Lepidoptera: Zygaenidae).
Journal of Evolutionary Biology,
32, 31-48.
Full text.
Briolat E, Burdfield-Steel E, Paul S, Rönkä K, Seymoure B, Stankowich T, Stuckert A (2018). Diversity in warning coloration: selective paradox or the norm?.
Biological ReviewsAbstract:
Diversity in warning coloration: selective paradox or the norm?
Aposematic theory has historically predicted that predators should select for warning signals to converge on a single form, as a result of frequency‐dependent learning. However, widespread variation in warning signals is observed across closely related species, populations and, most problematically for evolutionary biologists, among individuals in the same population. Recent research has yielded an increased awareness of this diversity, challenging the paradigm of signal monomorphy in aposematic animals. Here we provide a comprehensive synthesis of these disparate lines of investigation, identifying within them three broad classes of explanation for variation in aposematic warning signals: genetic mechanisms, differences among predators and predator behaviour, and alternative selection pressures upon the signal. The mechanisms producing warning coloration are also important. Detailed studies of the genetic basis of warning signals in some species, most notably Heliconius butterflies, are beginning to shed light on the genetic architecture facilitating or limiting key processes such as the evolution and maintenance of polymorphisms, hybridisation, and speciation. Work on predator behaviour is changing our perception of the predator community as a single homogenous selective agent, emphasising the dynamic nature of predator–prey interactions. Predator variability in a range of factors (e.g. perceptual abilities, tolerance to chemical defences, and individual motivation), suggests that the role of predators is more complicated than previously appreciated. With complex selection regimes at work, polytypisms and polymorphisms may even occur in Müllerian mimicry systems. Meanwhile, phenotypes are often multifunctional, and thus subject to additional biotic and abiotic selection pressures. Some of these selective pressures, primarily sexual selection and thermoregulation, have received considerable attention, while others, such as disease risk and parental effects, offer promising avenues to explore. As well as reviewing the existing evidence from both empirical studies and theoretical modelling, we highlight hypotheses that could benefit from further investigation in aposematic species. Finally by collating known instances of variation in warning signals, we provide a valuable resource for understanding the taxonomic spread of diversity in aposematic signalling and with which to direct future research. A greater appreciation of the extent of variation in aposematic species, and of the selective pressures and constraints which contribute to this once‐paradoxical phenomenon, yields a new perspective for the field of aposematic signalling.
Abstract.
Full text.
Briolat E, Zagrobelny M, Olsen, CE, Blount J, Stevens M (2018). Sex differences but no evidence of quantitative honesty in the warning signals of six-spot burnet moths (Zygaena filipendulae L.).
Evolution,
77, 1460-1474.
Full text.
Publications by year
2019
Caro T, Argueta Y, Briolat ES, Bruggink J, Kasprowsky M, Lake J, Mitchell MJ, Richardson S, How M (2019). Benefits of zebra stripes: Behaviour of tabanid flies around zebras and horses.
PLoS ONE,
14(2).
Abstract:
Benefits of zebra stripes: Behaviour of tabanid flies around zebras and horses
© 2019 Caro et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. 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.
Abstract.
Briolat E, Zagrobelny M, Olsen C, Blount J, Stevens M (2019). No evidence of quantitative signal honesty across species of aposematic burnet moths (Lepidoptera: Zygaenidae).
Journal of Evolutionary Biology,
32, 31-48.
Full text.
2018
Briolat E, Burdfield-Steel E, Paul S, Rönkä K, Seymoure B, Stankowich T, Stuckert A (2018). Diversity in warning coloration: selective paradox or the norm?.
Biological ReviewsAbstract:
Diversity in warning coloration: selective paradox or the norm?
Aposematic theory has historically predicted that predators should select for warning signals to converge on a single form, as a result of frequency‐dependent learning. However, widespread variation in warning signals is observed across closely related species, populations and, most problematically for evolutionary biologists, among individuals in the same population. Recent research has yielded an increased awareness of this diversity, challenging the paradigm of signal monomorphy in aposematic animals. Here we provide a comprehensive synthesis of these disparate lines of investigation, identifying within them three broad classes of explanation for variation in aposematic warning signals: genetic mechanisms, differences among predators and predator behaviour, and alternative selection pressures upon the signal. The mechanisms producing warning coloration are also important. Detailed studies of the genetic basis of warning signals in some species, most notably Heliconius butterflies, are beginning to shed light on the genetic architecture facilitating or limiting key processes such as the evolution and maintenance of polymorphisms, hybridisation, and speciation. Work on predator behaviour is changing our perception of the predator community as a single homogenous selective agent, emphasising the dynamic nature of predator–prey interactions. Predator variability in a range of factors (e.g. perceptual abilities, tolerance to chemical defences, and individual motivation), suggests that the role of predators is more complicated than previously appreciated. With complex selection regimes at work, polytypisms and polymorphisms may even occur in Müllerian mimicry systems. Meanwhile, phenotypes are often multifunctional, and thus subject to additional biotic and abiotic selection pressures. Some of these selective pressures, primarily sexual selection and thermoregulation, have received considerable attention, while others, such as disease risk and parental effects, offer promising avenues to explore. As well as reviewing the existing evidence from both empirical studies and theoretical modelling, we highlight hypotheses that could benefit from further investigation in aposematic species. Finally by collating known instances of variation in warning signals, we provide a valuable resource for understanding the taxonomic spread of diversity in aposematic signalling and with which to direct future research. A greater appreciation of the extent of variation in aposematic species, and of the selective pressures and constraints which contribute to this once‐paradoxical phenomenon, yields a new perspective for the field of aposematic signalling.
Abstract.
Full text.
Briolat E, Zagrobelny M, Olsen, CE, Blount J, Stevens M (2018). Sex differences but no evidence of quantitative honesty in the warning signals of six-spot burnet moths (Zygaena filipendulae L.).
Evolution,
77, 1460-1474.
Full text.
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