Page, Edward;
Queste, Lucie M;
Rosser, Neil;
Salazar, Patricio A;
Nadeau, Nicola J;
Mallet, James;
Srygley, Robert B;
... Dasmahapatra, Kanchon K; + view all
(2024)
Pervasive mimicry in flight behavior among aposematic butterflies.
PNAS
, 121
(11)
, Article e2300886121. 10.1073/pnas.2300886121.
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Abstract
Flight was a key innovation in the adaptive radiation of insects. However, it is a complex trait influenced by a large number of interacting biotic and abiotic factors, making it difficult to unravel the evolutionary drivers. We investigate flight patterns in neotropical heliconiine butterflies, well known for mimicry of their aposematic wing color patterns. We quantify the flight patterns (wing beat frequency and wing angles) of 351 individuals representing 29 heliconiine and 9 ithomiine species belonging to ten color pattern mimicry groupings. For wing beat frequency and up wing angles, we show that heliconiine species group by color pattern mimicry affiliation. Convergence of down wing angles to mimicry groupings is less pronounced, indicating that distinct components of flight are under different selection pressures and constraints. The flight characteristics of the Tiger mimicry group are particularly divergent due to convergence with distantly related ithomiine species. Predator-driven selection for mimicry also explained variation in flight among subspecies, indicating that this convergence can occur over relatively short evolutionary timescales. Our results suggest that the flight convergence is driven by aposematic signaling rather than shared habitat between comimics. We demonstrate that behavioral mimicry can occur between lineages that have separated over evolutionary timescales ranging from <0.5 to 70 My.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Pervasive mimicry in flight behavior among aposematic butterflies |
| Location: | United States |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1073/pnas.2300886121 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2300886121 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © 2024 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. This article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND). |
| Keywords: | parallel evolution, multitrait mimicry, wing beat frequency, Heliconius, Ithomiini |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Genetics, Evolution and Environment |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10197066 |
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