Variation in cyanogenic compounds concentration within a Heliconius butterfly community: does mimicry explain everything?
Variation in cyanogenic compounds concentration within a Heliconius butterfly community: does mimicry explain everything?
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DOI：
10.1186/s12862-016-0843-5
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发表时间：
2016-12-15
影响因子：
3.4
通讯作者：
Llaurens, Violaine
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Arias, Monica;Meichanetzoglou, Aimilia;Llaurens, Violaine
背景：警戒性物种利用诸如醒目的颜色等警告信号来宣传它们的不适口性。由于捕食者需要对警戒性猎物进行采样以了解它们是无利可图的，具有类似警告信号的猎物分担了捕食者学习的成本。这种减少捕食风险的驱动器之间的化学防御猎物（缪勒拟态）的警告信号的进化收敛。这种警告信号的收敛是否与共同模仿者之间类似的防御水平有关仍然是一个悬而未决的问题，很少在野生种群中进行测试。我们量化的变化氰化物为基础的（CN）化学保护在野生捕获的个人八aposematic Heliconius蝴蝶物种属于四个同域拟态环。然后，我们测试了化学保护和生态物种特异性traits.Results之间的相关性：我们报告的CN浓度显着差异内和同域物种之间，即使当占模仿环，即使考虑种间变异。我们发现CN浓度和寄主植物的专业化和群居行为在成人和幼虫之间的显着相关性。然而，CN浓度的差异并没有显着联系到模仿环丰度，虽然两个最有毒的物种属于最稀有的模仿ring.Conclusions：我们的研究结果表明，模仿可以解释在一定程度上的化学防御水平的变化，虽然其他生态因素也有关这种变异的演变。
Background: Aposematic species advertise their unpalatability using warning signals such as striking coloration. Given that predators need to sample aposematic prey to learn that they are unprofitable, prey with similar warning signals share the cost of predator learning. This reduction in predation risk drives evolutionary convergence of warning signals among chemically defended prey (Mullerian mimicry). Whether such warning signal convergence is associated to similar defence levels among co-mimics is still an open question that has rarely been tested in wild populations. We quantified variation in cyanide-based (CN) chemical protection in wild caught individuals of eight aposematic Heliconius butterfly species belonging to four sympatric mimicry rings. We then tested for correlations between chemical protection and ecological species-specific traits.Results: We report significant differences in CN concentrations both within and between sympatric species, even when accounting for the phylogeny, and within and between mimicry rings, even after considering inter-specific variation. We found significant correlations between CN concentration and both hostplant specialization and gregarious behaviour in adults and larvae. However, differences in CN concentrations were not significantly linked to mimicry ring abundance, although the two most toxic species did belong to the rarest mimicry ring.Conclusions: Our results suggest that mimicry can explain the variation in the levels of chemical defence to a certain extent, although other ecological factors are also relevant to the evolution of such variability.