Pérez-Delgado Antonio J, Wagner Herbert C
Island Ecology and Evolution Research Group Institute of Natural Products and Agrobiology (IPNA-CSIC) La Laguna Spain.
School of Doctoral and Postgraduate Studies University of La Laguna La Laguna Spain.
Ecol Evol. 2024 Aug 19;14(8):e70113. doi: 10.1002/ece3.70113. eCollection 2024 Aug.
Mimicry, that is, the imitation of any unpalatable or defensive species by another, has been of central interest to evolutionary research since Darwin's lifetime. Two ant species, Santschi, 1908 and Emery, 1893, endemic to the Canary Islands, occur in two color-morphs: While the head of workers is always reddish and the gaster blackish, the mesosoma (inclusive waist) is either fully reddish or fully blackish. In addition to the obvious morphological and coloration similarities, we provide evidence of mimicry: (i) was found only within the area of . (ii) Color morphs are geographically non-randomly distributed: Workers of both species from 16 localities of syntopic occurrences shared in eight cases a blackish and in eight cases a reddish mesosoma. Hence, mimics both local color-morphs of . We consider a fascinating analogy with the Mediterranean mimicry system in (Olivier, 1792) and its model species of the (Olivier, 1792) group on an island scale. Additionally, we present two endemic bug species, (Ribes et al., 2008) and Roca-Cusachs & Goula, 2016, as mimics of those workers having a reddish mesosoma. Our distribution, coloration, frequency, and behavioral data as well as the analogy with and the group suggest a Batesian-mimicry system in which , , and mimic the unpalatable and aggressive as an antipredator adaptation.
拟态，即一种物种对另一种难吃或具防御性物种的模仿，自达尔文时代以来一直是进化研究的核心关注点。加那利群岛特有的两种蚂蚁物种（桑奇，1908年；埃默里，1893年）有两种颜色形态：工蚁的头部总是呈红色，腹部呈黑色，而中体（包括腰部）要么全为红色，要么全为黑色。除了明显的形态和颜色相似性外，我们还提供了拟态的证据：（i）仅在……区域内被发现。（ii）颜色形态在地理上分布并非随机：来自16个同域分布地点的两种蚂蚁的工蚁，在8个案例中中体为黑色，在8个案例中中体为红色。因此，……模仿了……的两种当地颜色形态。我们在岛屿尺度上考虑了与地中海拟态系统（奥利维尔，1792年）及其……（奥利维尔，1792年）组的模式物种的有趣类比。此外，我们还展示了两种当地的蝽象物种（里贝斯等人，2008年）和……（罗卡 - 库萨克斯和古拉，2016年），它们模仿那些中体为红色的……工蚁。我们的分布、颜色、频率和行为数据，以及与……和……组的类比表明存在一个贝氏拟态系统，其中……、……和……模仿难吃且具攻击性的……作为一种反捕食者适应。
