Open AccessMimicry in viceroy butterflies is dependent on abundance of the model queen butterfly
Author(s) -
Kathleen L. Prudic,
Barbara N. Timmermann,
Daniel R. Papaj,
David B. Ritland,
Jeffrey C. Oliver
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
communications biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.812
H-Index - 26
ISSN - 2399-3642
DOI - 10.1038/s42003-019-0303-z
Subject(s) - queen (butterfly) , abundance (ecology) , mimicry , predation , predator , population , ecology , butterfly , biology , aposematism , zoology , geography , demography , hymenoptera , sociology
Mimics should not exist without their models, yet often they do. In the system involving queen and viceroy butterflies, the viceroy is both mimic and co-model depending on the local abundance of the model, the queen. Here, we integrate population surveys, chemical analyses, and predator behavior assays to demonstrate how mimics may persist in locations with low-model abundance. As the queen becomes less locally abundant, the viceroy becomes more chemically defended and unpalatable to predators. However, the observed changes in viceroy chemical defense and palatability are not attributable to differing host plant chemical defense profiles. Our results suggest that mimetic viceroy populations are maintained at localities of low-model abundance through an increase in their toxicity. Sharing the burden of predator education in some places but not others may also lower the fitness cost of warning signals thereby supporting the origin and maintenance of aposematism.