Data from: Anuran predators overcome visual illusion: dazzle coloration does not protect moving prey

Predators everywhere impose strong selection pressures on the morphology
and behavior of their prey, but the resulting antipredator adaptations
vary greatly among species. Studies of adaptive coloration in prey species
have generally focused on cryptic or aposematic prey, with little
consideration of color patterns in palatable mobile prey. Complex color
patterns have been proposed to decrease the ability of visual predators to
capture moving prey (motion dazzle effect). Most support for this
hypothesis, however, comes from experiments with human subjects and
simulated prey. We tested the motion dazzle effect using, for the first
time, natural predators (cane toads, Rhinella marina) and live prey (house
crickets, Acheta domesticus) with altered color patterns. We found no
support for the motion dazzle effect as striped crickets did not fare
better than solid colored ones. Crickets that spent more time moving,
however, were more likely to be eaten. Our results suggest that motion
specialized visual predators such as toads overcome the motion dazzle
effect and impose stronger selection pressure on prey behavior than on
coloration. These findings emphasize the importance of sensory
specializations of predators in mediating antipredator strategies.