Selective predation favouring cryptic individuals of marine snails (Littorina)

Abstract

Many gastropods have inherited conspicuous shell colour polymorphisms. A challenging question is, are colour frequencies under selection or is polymorphism owing to random evolutionary processes? The intertidal species Littorina saxatilis (a rock-dweller) and L. obtusata (confined to macroalgae) both have genetically determined shell colour variation. In Iceland, Littorina obtusata are mostly cryptic on brown macroalgae by having brown or yellow shells (~95% of the snails), while Littorina saxatilis often appears conspicuous to the background of dark rocks owing to non-cryptic colours (15–20%). This difference may be due to selective elimination of conspicuously coloured L. obtusata by visual predators, while L. saxatilis, largely living in another habitat, is not under a similarly intense colour selection. To test this hypothesis we increased the frequencies of conspicuous L. saxatilis in experimental populations (from <12 to 55%) and placed these in the seaweed zone, the main habitat of L. obtusata. Fifteen populations were released on isolated spots of seaweed and three of these were covered by net cages to exclude bird predators. One month later, yellow snails had increased in frequency within the patches, and to our surprise the result did not differ between bare and caged patches. This suggests selection favouring a colour that matches the background of fucoid seaweeds by visual predators able to enter the cages. Birds acted as important predators by picking 16% of the experimental snails in the uncaged spots, but were unable to enter the caged spots. However, the bird predation was non-selective with respect to snail colour. For various reasons the most likely predators able to enter the cages were intertidal fish, these were thus responsible for the selection of non-cryptic snails. © 2002 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2002, 76, 137–144.