bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/754994; this version posted September 5, 2019. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. 1 A kinematic analysis of Micrurus coral snakes reveals unexpected variation in stereotyped 2 anti-predator displays within a mimicry system 3 Talia Y. Moore (1,2,3)*, Shannon M. Danforth (4), Joanna G. Larson (2,3), Alison R. Davis 4 Rabosky (2,3) 5 *corresponding author:
[email protected] 6 (1) Robotics Institute, University of Michigan, 2350 Hayward St, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 7 (2) Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, 1105 N. University Ave, 8 Ann Arbor, MI 48109 9 (3) Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan, 3600 Varsity Drive, Ann Arbor, MI 48108 10 (4) Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, 2350 Hayward St, Ann Arbor, MI 11 48109 12 Keywords: aposematism, biomechanics, coral snake mimicry, curvature, Elapidae, non- 13 locomotory motion, Peruvian Amazon, snake behaviour 1 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/754994; this version posted September 5, 2019. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. 14 Abstract 15 1. Warning signals in chemically defended organisms are critical components of predator-prey 16 interactions, often requiring multiple coordinated display components for a signal to be effective. 17 When threatened by a predator, venomous coral snakes (genus Micrurus) display a vigorous, 18 non-locomotory thrashing behaviour that has been only qualitatively described.