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Geographical coincidence and mimicry between harmless snakes ( C olubridae: O xyrhopus ) and harmful models ( E lapidae: M icrurus )
Author(s) -
Bosque Renan Janke,
Noonan Brice Patrick,
Colli Guarino Rinaldi
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
global ecology and biogeography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.164
H-Index - 152
eISSN - 1466-8238
pISSN - 1466-822X
DOI - 10.1111/geb.12401
Subject(s) - species richness , mimicry , nestedness , ecology , taxon , biology , fidelity , orchidaceae , evolutionary biology , computer science , telecommunications
Aim In the N ew W orld coral‐snake complex, M icrurus species presumably serve as B atesian models for some species of C olubridae, including O xyrhopus . To better understand the evolutionary role of mimicry, we explored the distributional overlap of M icrurus (models) and O xyrhopus (mimics), the association between species and pattern richness of both taxa, and the relationship between mimetic fidelity and model diversity. Location The Neotropical region and southern‐most N earctic region. Methods We classified colour patterns and delineated the geographical distributions of species in a 1° grid, spanning the distributions of both genera. We used generalized linear models to test for significant associations of species and colour patterns. We used guided regularized random forests to identify, among M icrurus colour patterns, the best predictors of the presence and richness of O xyrhopus colour patterns. To account for spatial autocorrelation, we implemented Bayesian hierarchical models using the integral nested L aplace approximation with a conditional autoregressive prior. Results With few exceptions, the presence and richness of species of M icrurus bearing a given colour pattern in grid cells were good predictors of the presence and richness of O xyrhopus species bearing the same colour pattern. However, these relationships did not hold when we accounted for species of M icrurus bearing different colour patterns, except in a few cases. The presence of perfect (i.e. those that have a matching M icrurus model) and imperfect (those that do not) O xyrhopus colour patterns in grid cells was positively correlated with the richness of M icrurus colour patterns. Main conclusions Mimicry complexes may not rely upon perfect signal matching and distributional overlap as previously supposed. Tests of mimetic relationships based on geographical distributions must account for alternative hypotheses including organisms that do not appear to be close mimics. Mimicry complexes may capitalize upon model signal diversity, allowing for the diversification of lineages with warning coloration in the face of stabilizing selection.