Pervasive mimicry in flight behavior among aposematic butterflies

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Page, Edward; Queste, Lucie M.; Rosser, Neil; Salazar, Patricio A.; Nadeau, Nicola J.; Mallet, James; Srygley, Robert B.; McMillan, W. Owen; Dasmahapatra, Kanchon K.
• 署名单位: University of York - UK; University of Munich; Harvard University; University of Sheffield; Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute; Smithsonian Institution; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute; United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
• 刊物名称: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0027-11399
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2300886121
• 发表日期: 2024-03-12
• 关键词: pyrrolizidine alkaloids; heliconius butterflies; ithomiine butterflies; neotropical butterflies; wingbeat frequency; locomotor mimicry; hybrid zones; lepidoptera; EVOLUTION; morphology

摘要

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.