Cheats and Deceits
How Animals and Plants Exploit and Mislead
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- 27,99 €
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- 27,99 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
In nature, trickery and deception are widespread. Animals and plants mimic other objects or species in the environment for protection, trick other species into rearing their young, lure prey to their death, and deceive potential mates for reproduction. Cuckoos lay eggs carefully matched to their host's own clutch. Harmless butterflies mimic the wing patterning of a poisonous butterfly to avoid being eaten. The deep-sea angler fish hangs a glowing, fleshy lure in front of its mouth to draw the attention of potential prey, while some male fish alter their appearance to look like females in order to sneak past rivals in mating. Some orchids develop the smell of female insects in order to attract pollinators, while carnivorous plants lure insects to their death with colourful displays.
In this book, Martin Stevens describes the remarkable range of such adaptations in nature, and considers how they have evolved, and become increasingly perfected as part of an arms race between predator and prey or host and parasite. He explores the work of naturalists and biologists from Alfred Russel Wallace to current research, showing how scientists find ways of testing the impact of particular behaviours and colourings on the animals it is meant to fool, as opposed to our human perceptions. Drawing on a wide range of examples, Stevens considers what deception tells us about the process of evolution and adaptation.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Cheating and deception abounds in the natural world, as Stevens, associate professor in sensory and evolutionary ecology at the University of Exeter (U.K.), reveals in this discussion of the ways plants and animals make use of deceptive strategies to enhance their chances of reproducing. He discusses myriad examples from around the world, always focusing on the evolutionary pressures at work. Stevens shares information from Victorian natural historians such as Alfred Russel Wallace, Henry Bates, and Charles Darwin who first noted some of the most obvious cases of mimicry and offered explanations for their existence. Current scientists also receive their due, revealing how increasingly sophisticated experiments have become as they try to determine how and whether deception occurs. Throughout, Stevens draws a distinction between sensory exploitation and mimicry, pointing to the evolutionary pressures that yield dramatically different results in the two cases. His somewhat encyclopedic approach, coupled with his rather dry writing style, make the book better for dipping into than voraciously absorbing. The color plates nicely supplement Stevens's text and will help readers appreciate the nature of many of the deceptions discussed. Illus.
