Although the theory of self-shadow concealing countershading is over a century old, there are very few direct empirical tests to substantiate the prediction that prey that are dorsally darkened and ventrally lightened (generally termed countershaded) suffer lower rates of attack than other prey....

We consider the optimal behavior of a cryptic prey individual as it is approached by a predator searching for prey. Although the predator has not yet discovered the prey, it has an increasing likelihood of doing so as it gets closer to the prey. Further, the closer the predator is to the prey...