Palmer Daniela H, Tan Yue Qian, Finkbeiner Susan D, Briscoe Adriana D, Monteiro Antónia, Kronforst Marcus R
Committee on Evolutionary Biology University of Chicago Chicago Illinois.
Department of Ecology and Evolution University of Chicago Chicago Illinois.
Ecol Evol. 2018 Jul 12;8(15):7657-7666. doi: 10.1002/ece3.4207. eCollection 2018 Aug.
The swallowtail butterfly is known for its striking resemblance in wing pattern to the toxic butterfly and is a focal system for the study of mimicry evolution. females are polymorphic in wing pattern, with mimetic and nonmimetic forms, while males are monomorphic and nonmimetic. Past work invokes selection for mimicry as the driving force behind wing pattern evolution in . However, the mimetic relationship between and is not well understood. In order to test the mimicry hypothesis, we constructed paper replicas of mimetic and nonmimetic and , placed them in their natural habitat, and measured bird predation on replicas. In initial trials with stationary replicas and plasticine bodies, overall predation was low and we found no differences in predation between replica types. In later trials with replicas mounted on springs and with live mealworms standing in for the butterfly's body, we found less predation on mimetic replicas compared to nonmimetic replicas, consistent with the predator avoidance benefits of mimicry. While our results are mixed, they generally lend support to the mimicry hypothesis as well as the idea that behavioral differences between the sexes contributed to the evolution of sexually dimorphic mimicry.
燕尾蝶因其翅膀图案与有毒蝴蝶惊人的相似而闻名，是研究拟态进化的一个重点系统。雌性在翅膀图案上具有多态性，有拟态和非拟态两种形态，而雄性则是单态且非拟态的。过去的研究认为，对拟态的选择是燕尾蝶翅膀图案进化背后的驱动力。然而，燕尾蝶与有毒蝴蝶之间的拟态关系尚未得到充分理解。为了验证拟态假说，我们制作了拟态和非拟态燕尾蝶及有毒蝴蝶的纸质复制品，将它们放置在自然栖息地中，并测量鸟类对复制品的捕食情况。在最初使用固定复制品和橡皮泥身体的试验中，总体捕食率较低，我们发现不同类型复制品之间的捕食情况没有差异。在后来使用安装在弹簧上的复制品以及用活黄粉虫代替蝴蝶身体的试验中，我们发现与非拟态燕尾蝶复制品相比，拟态燕尾蝶复制品的捕食情况较少，这与拟态带来的躲避捕食者的益处相一致。虽然我们的结果好坏参半，但总体上支持了拟态假说以及性别之间的行为差异促成了两性异形拟态进化这一观点。
