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Variation in wing pattern and palatability in a female-limited polymorphic mimicry system

Checkerspot butterflies in the genera Euphydryas and Chlosyne exhibit phenotypic polymorphisms along a well-defined latitudinal and elevational gradient in California. The patterns of phenotypic variation in Euphydryas chalcedona, Chlosyne palla, and Chlosyne hoffmanni suggest a mimetic relationship...

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Autores principales: Long, Elizabeth C, Hahn, Thomas P, Shapiro, Arthur M
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BlackWell Publishing Ltd 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4264903/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25512850
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.1308
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author Long, Elizabeth C
Hahn, Thomas P
Shapiro, Arthur M
author_facet Long, Elizabeth C
Hahn, Thomas P
Shapiro, Arthur M
author_sort Long, Elizabeth C
collection PubMed
description Checkerspot butterflies in the genera Euphydryas and Chlosyne exhibit phenotypic polymorphisms along a well-defined latitudinal and elevational gradient in California. The patterns of phenotypic variation in Euphydryas chalcedona, Chlosyne palla, and Chlosyne hoffmanni suggest a mimetic relationship; in addition, the specific patterns of variation in C. palla suggest a female-limited polymorphic mimicry system (FPM). However, the existence of polymorphic models runs counter to predictions of mimicry theory. Palatability trials were undertaken to assess whether or not the different color morphs of each species were distasteful or toxic to a generalized avian predator, the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris). Results indicate that the black morph of E. chalcedona is distasteful, but not toxic, to predators, while the red morph is palatable. C . hoffmanni and both color morphs of C. palla are palatable to predators. Predators that learn to reject black E. chalcedona also reject black C. palla, suggesting that the latter is a FPM of the former. C. hoffmanni does not appear to be involved in this mimetic relationship.
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spelling pubmed-42649032014-12-15 Variation in wing pattern and palatability in a female-limited polymorphic mimicry system Long, Elizabeth C Hahn, Thomas P Shapiro, Arthur M Ecol Evol Original Research Checkerspot butterflies in the genera Euphydryas and Chlosyne exhibit phenotypic polymorphisms along a well-defined latitudinal and elevational gradient in California. The patterns of phenotypic variation in Euphydryas chalcedona, Chlosyne palla, and Chlosyne hoffmanni suggest a mimetic relationship; in addition, the specific patterns of variation in C. palla suggest a female-limited polymorphic mimicry system (FPM). However, the existence of polymorphic models runs counter to predictions of mimicry theory. Palatability trials were undertaken to assess whether or not the different color morphs of each species were distasteful or toxic to a generalized avian predator, the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris). Results indicate that the black morph of E. chalcedona is distasteful, but not toxic, to predators, while the red morph is palatable. C . hoffmanni and both color morphs of C. palla are palatable to predators. Predators that learn to reject black E. chalcedona also reject black C. palla, suggesting that the latter is a FPM of the former. C. hoffmanni does not appear to be involved in this mimetic relationship. BlackWell Publishing Ltd 2014-12 2014-11-20 /pmc/articles/PMC4264903/ /pubmed/25512850 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.1308 Text en © 2014 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Research
Long, Elizabeth C
Hahn, Thomas P
Shapiro, Arthur M
Variation in wing pattern and palatability in a female-limited polymorphic mimicry system
title Variation in wing pattern and palatability in a female-limited polymorphic mimicry system
title_full Variation in wing pattern and palatability in a female-limited polymorphic mimicry system
title_fullStr Variation in wing pattern and palatability in a female-limited polymorphic mimicry system
title_full_unstemmed Variation in wing pattern and palatability in a female-limited polymorphic mimicry system
title_short Variation in wing pattern and palatability in a female-limited polymorphic mimicry system
title_sort variation in wing pattern and palatability in a female-limited polymorphic mimicry system
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4264903/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25512850
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.1308
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