Black and White Preferences in the Frog, Rana Temporaria, and Other Anura

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Conditions are described in which the frog, Rana temporaria, selects the darker of two stimuli. Some similar observations are reported for other amphibians. Further experiments suggested that a dark starting area is a factor tending to decrease negative phototaxis. Forcing the frogs from the dark starting area decreased the scores for the darker of two stimuli. No strong positive phototaxis was found in the present experiments. In conditions giving negative phototaxis there is a slight preference for blue over green. These results are compared to previous work and discussed in relation to the possible underlying mechanism and their biological value.