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Field evidence for colour mimicry overshadowing morphological mimicry

1. Imperfect mimicry may be maintained when the various components of an aposematic signal have different salience for predators. Experimental laboratory studies provide robust evidence for this phenomenon. Yet, evidence from natural settings remains scarce. 2. We studied how natural bird predators...

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Autores principales: Corral‐Lopez, Alberto, Varg, Javier Edo, Cano‐Cobos, Yiselle P., Losada, Rafael, Realpe, Emilio, Outomuro, David
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7986869/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33300609
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13404
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author Corral‐Lopez, Alberto
Varg, Javier Edo
Cano‐Cobos, Yiselle P.
Losada, Rafael
Realpe, Emilio
Outomuro, David
author_facet Corral‐Lopez, Alberto
Varg, Javier Edo
Cano‐Cobos, Yiselle P.
Losada, Rafael
Realpe, Emilio
Outomuro, David
author_sort Corral‐Lopez, Alberto
collection PubMed
description 1. Imperfect mimicry may be maintained when the various components of an aposematic signal have different salience for predators. Experimental laboratory studies provide robust evidence for this phenomenon. Yet, evidence from natural settings remains scarce. 2. We studied how natural bird predators assess multiple features in a multicomponent aposematic signal in the Neotropical ‘clear wing complex’ mimicry ring, dominated by glasswing butterflies. 3. We evaluated two components of the aposematic signal, wing colouration and wing morphology, in a predation experiment based on artificial replicas of glasswing butterflies (model) and Polythoridae damselflies (mimics) in their natural habitat. We also studied the extent of the colour aposematic signal in the local insect community. Finally, we inspected the nanostructures responsible for this convergent colour signal, expected to highly differ between these phylogenetically distinct species. 4. Our results provide direct evidence for a stronger salience of wing colouration than wing morphology, as well as stronger selection on imperfect than in perfect colour mimics. Additionally, investigations of how birds perceive wing colouration of the local insect community provides further evidence that a UV‐reflective white colouration is being selected as the colour aposematic signal of the mimicry ring. Using electron microscopy, we also suggest that damselflies have convergently evolved the warning colouration through a pre‐adaptation. 5. These findings provide a solid complement to previous experimental evidence suggesting a key influence of the cognitive assessment of predators driving the evolution of aposematic signals and mimicry rings.
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spelling pubmed-79868692021-03-25 Field evidence for colour mimicry overshadowing morphological mimicry Corral‐Lopez, Alberto Varg, Javier Edo Cano‐Cobos, Yiselle P. Losada, Rafael Realpe, Emilio Outomuro, David J Anim Ecol Research Articles 1. Imperfect mimicry may be maintained when the various components of an aposematic signal have different salience for predators. Experimental laboratory studies provide robust evidence for this phenomenon. Yet, evidence from natural settings remains scarce. 2. We studied how natural bird predators assess multiple features in a multicomponent aposematic signal in the Neotropical ‘clear wing complex’ mimicry ring, dominated by glasswing butterflies. 3. We evaluated two components of the aposematic signal, wing colouration and wing morphology, in a predation experiment based on artificial replicas of glasswing butterflies (model) and Polythoridae damselflies (mimics) in their natural habitat. We also studied the extent of the colour aposematic signal in the local insect community. Finally, we inspected the nanostructures responsible for this convergent colour signal, expected to highly differ between these phylogenetically distinct species. 4. Our results provide direct evidence for a stronger salience of wing colouration than wing morphology, as well as stronger selection on imperfect than in perfect colour mimics. Additionally, investigations of how birds perceive wing colouration of the local insect community provides further evidence that a UV‐reflective white colouration is being selected as the colour aposematic signal of the mimicry ring. Using electron microscopy, we also suggest that damselflies have convergently evolved the warning colouration through a pre‐adaptation. 5. These findings provide a solid complement to previous experimental evidence suggesting a key influence of the cognitive assessment of predators driving the evolution of aposematic signals and mimicry rings. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2020-12-20 2021-03 /pmc/articles/PMC7986869/ /pubmed/33300609 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13404 Text en © 2020 The Authors. Journal of Animal Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non‐commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
spellingShingle Research Articles
Corral‐Lopez, Alberto
Varg, Javier Edo
Cano‐Cobos, Yiselle P.
Losada, Rafael
Realpe, Emilio
Outomuro, David
Field evidence for colour mimicry overshadowing morphological mimicry
title Field evidence for colour mimicry overshadowing morphological mimicry
title_full Field evidence for colour mimicry overshadowing morphological mimicry
title_fullStr Field evidence for colour mimicry overshadowing morphological mimicry
title_full_unstemmed Field evidence for colour mimicry overshadowing morphological mimicry
title_short Field evidence for colour mimicry overshadowing morphological mimicry
title_sort field evidence for colour mimicry overshadowing morphological mimicry
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7986869/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33300609
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13404
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