School of Built and Natural Environment, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, Lancashire, PR1 2HE, United Kingdom.
Evolution. 2014 Mar;68(3):827-39. doi: 10.1111/evo.12308. Epub 2014 Jan 10.
Palatable Batesian mimics are avoided by predators because they resemble noxious or defended species. The striking resemblance of many hoverflies to noxious Hymenoptera is a "textbook" example of Batesian mimicry, but evidence that selection by predators has shaped the evolution of hoverfly patterns is weak. We looked for geographical and temporal trends in frequencies of morphs of the polymorphic hoverfly Volucella bombylans that would support the hypothesis that these morphs are Batesian mimics of different bumblebee species. The frequency of the black and yellow hoverfly morph was significantly positively related to the frequency of black and yellow bumblebees across 52 sites. Similarly, the frequency of the red-tailed hoverfly morph was positively related to the frequency of red-tailed bumblebees. However, the frequencies of hoverfly morphs were positively spatially autocorrelated, and after controlling for this, only one of the two common hoverfly morphs showed a significant positive relationship with its putative model. We conclude that the distribution of V. bombylans morphs probably reflects geographical variation in selection by predators resulting from differences in the frequencies of noxious bumblebee species.
美味的贝氏拟态可被捕食者避免，因为它们类似于有毒或受保护的物种。许多食蚜蝇与有毒膜翅目昆虫惊人的相似是贝氏拟态的“典型”例子，但捕食者选择对食蚜蝇形态进化的影响的证据很薄弱。我们寻找多态的食蚜蝇 Volucella bombylans 形态的地理和时间趋势，以支持这些形态是不同熊蜂物种的贝氏拟态的假说。黑黄相间的食蚜蝇形态的频率与 52 个地点的黑黄相间的熊蜂的频率呈显著正相关。同样，红尾食蚜蝇形态的频率与红尾熊蜂的频率呈正相关。然而，食蚜蝇形态的频率呈正空间自相关，在控制了这种自相关之后，只有两种常见的食蚜蝇形态中的一种与它们的假定模型表现出显著的正相关关系。我们的结论是，V. bombylans 形态的分布可能反映了捕食者选择的地理变异，这是由于有毒熊蜂物种频率的差异造成的。
