Keeping the band together: evidence for false boundary disruptive coloration in a butterfly

There is a recent surge of evidence supporting disruptive coloration, in which patterns break up the animal's outline through false edges or boundaries, increasing survival in animals by reducing predator detection and/or preventing recognition. Though research has demonstrated that false edges are successful for reducing predation of prey, research into the role of internal false boundaries (i.e., stripes and bands) in reducing predation remains warranted. Many animals, have stripes and bands that may function disruptively. Here we test the possible disruptive function of wing band patterning in a butterfly, Anartia fatima, using artificial paper and plasticine models in Panama. We manipulated the band so that one model type had the band shifted to the wing margin (non-disruptive treatment) and another model had a discontinuous band located on the wing margin (discontinuous edge treatment). We kept the natural wing pattern to represent the false boundary treatment. Across all treatment...