Binns Georgina E, Hämäläinen Liisa, Kemp Darrell J, Rowland Hannah M, Umbers Kate D L, Herberstein Marie E
School of Natural Sciences, 14 Eastern Road Macquarie University North Ryde New South Wales Australia.
Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology Hans Knöll Straße 8,Jena Germany.
Ecol Evol. 2022 Jul 17;12(7):e9111. doi: 10.1002/ece3.9111. eCollection 2022 Jul.
Many aposematic species show variation in their color patterns even though selection by predators is expected to stabilize warning signals toward a common phenotype. Warning signal variability can be explained by trade-offs with other functions of coloration, such as thermoregulation, that may constrain warning signal expression by favoring darker individuals. Here, we investigated the effect of temperature on warning signal expression in aposematic moths that vary in their black and orange wing patterns. We sampled moths from two flight seasons that differed in the environmental temperatures and also reared different families under controlled conditions at three different temperatures. Against our prediction that lower developmental temperatures would reduce the warning signal size of the adult moths, we found no effect of temperature on warning signal expression in either wild or laboratory-reared moths. Instead, we found sex- and population-level differences in wing patterns. Our rearing experiment indicated that ~70% of the variability in the trait is genetic but understanding what signaling and non-signaling functions of wing coloration maintain the genetic variation requires further work. Our results emphasize the importance of considering both genetic and plastic components of warning signal expression when studying intraspecific variation in aposematic species.
许多具有警戒色的物种，即便捕食者的选择作用预计会使警戒信号朝着一个共同的表型稳定下来，但其颜色模式仍会表现出变化。警戒信号的变异性可以通过与其他颜色功能（如体温调节）的权衡来解释，体温调节可能会因偏爱颜色较深的个体而限制警戒信号的表达。在此，我们研究了温度对具有黑色和橙色翅膀图案变化的警戒色蛾类警戒信号表达的影响。我们从两个飞行季节采集蛾类样本，这两个季节的环境温度不同，并且还在三种不同温度的受控条件下饲养了不同的家族。与我们的预测（较低的发育温度会减小成年蛾类的警戒信号大小）相反，我们发现温度对野生或实验室饲养的蛾类的警戒信号表达均无影响。相反，我们发现了翅膀图案在性别和种群水平上的差异。我们的饲养实验表明，该性状约70%的变异性是由基因决定的，但要理解翅膀颜色的信号功能和非信号功能是如何维持这种基因变异，还需要进一步研究。我们的研究结果强调了在研究具有警戒色物种的种内变异时，考虑警戒信号表达的遗传和可塑性成分的重要性。
