On the spectrum of animal coloration: a comment on Postema et al.

Intermediate strategies due to mixed selection pressures can be equally optimal as coloration produced by a single selection pressure for a "pure" strategy ([2]). The evolution of protective and aggressive animal coloration is driven by selection caused by the viewer's perception, cognition, and behavior together with the visual properties of the environment where the viewer encounters the coloration. Thus, to distinguish whether a coloration represents an intermediate strategy due to multiple conflicting selection pressures or a maximized strategy as a response to a single or multiple concurring selection pressures is probably not as straightforward as it might superficially appear. [Extracted from the article]