Facultative brightness-change in an invasive gecko entering a novel background environment
Laven, Naomi, Higgie, Megan, Coquille, Ylenia, and Hoskin, Conrad J. (2025) Facultative brightness-change in an invasive gecko entering a novel background environment. Biological Invasions, 27 (7). 157.
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Abstract
Background matching is a common form of crypsis in animals, resulting from selective pressures imposed by visual systems of predators and/or prey. Therefore, it could be expected that novel backgrounds would pose a barrier to the establishment of invasive species, due to a lack of crypsis. Behavioural flexibility in crypsis—through facultative crypsis and/or choice of matching backgrounds—has been suggested as a trait that may facilitate invasiveness. We assessed background-matching and facultative brightness-change in an Australian population of the invasive Asian House Gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus). This species is currently expanding from urban environments into surrounding tropical woodland, and demonstrates great variability in colour and pattern among individuals. We quantified wild background-matching in terms of both colour and brightness. We then experimentally tested whether geckos facultatively change brightness in the direction expected for a given background. Hemidactylus frenatus consistently brightness-matched across the backgrounds on which they were found, more than would be expected by chance. Experiments showed that H. frenatus rapidly changed in their dorsal brightness, in the direction expected given their background, suggesting that brightness-matching observed in wild geckos is due to facultative brightness-change. Successful invasion may benefit from facultative crypsis; however, it remains to be demonstrated how facultative brightness-change in H. frenatus is linked to predation and invasion success. We outline how recognition of facultative colour-pattern change in invasive species may be important for early detection and management actions.
| Item ID: | 87912 |
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| Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
| ISSN: | 1573-1464 |
| Keywords: | Background matching, Colour change, Crypsis, Hemidactylus frenatus, House gecko, Invasive traits, Reptile |
| Copyright Information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Date Deposited: | 10 Sep 2025 23:57 |
| FoR Codes: | 31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3104 Evolutionary biology > 310403 Biological adaptation @ 50% 41 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES > 4104 Environmental management > 410401 Conservation and biodiversity @ 50% |
| SEO Codes: | 18 ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT > 1806 Terrestrial systems and management > 180606 Terrestrial biodiversity @ 50% 28 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 2801 Expanding knowledge > 280102 Expanding knowledge in the biological sciences @ 50% |
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