BIRDS CAN OVERCOME THE CARDENOLIDE DEFENSE OF MONARCH BUTTERFLIES IN MEXICO
BIRDS CAN OVERCOME THE CARDENOLIDE DEFENSE OF MONARCH BUTTERFLIES IN MEXICO
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DOI：
10.1038/291067a0
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发表时间：
1981-01-01
期刊：
影响因子：
64.8
通讯作者：
BROWER, LP
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
FINK, LS;BROWER, LP
成群的黑背金莺(Icterus Abeillei Lessen)和黑头罗汉嘴(Pheucticus Blackocephalus Swainson)捕食数十万只帝王蝴蝶(D.plexippus L.)在墨西哥中部密集的越冬群体中，和1979年在几个地点造成了60%的蝴蝶死亡。这种捕食是不寻常的，因为在幼虫发育过程中，颜色鲜艳的帝王蝶从其乳草食物植物(Asclepiadaceae)中隔离出Cardenolide，后者已知对几种鸟类有毒性。除了在墨西哥，从未观察到鸟类对帝王蝶的捕食。墨西哥蝴蝶的呕吐性很弱，金莺的味觉辨别和罗汉果喙的不敏感让这些蝴蝶可以自由地以帝王蝶为食。
Flocks of black-backed orioles (Icterus abeillei Lesson) and black-headed grosbeaks (Pheucticus melanocephalus Swainson) eat several hundred thousand monarch butterflies (D. plexippus L.) in the dense overwintering colonies in central Mexico, and in 1979 were responsible for > 60% of the butterfly mortality at several sites. Such predation is unusual because, during larval development the aposematically colored monarch butterfly sequesters cardenolides from its milkweed foodplants (Asclepiadaceae), and the latter are known to be toxic to several bird species. Predation of monarch butterflies by birds has never been observed except in Mexico. The Mexican butterflies are weakly emetic, and taste discrimination by orioles and cardenolide insensitivity of grosbeaks allow these birds to feed freely on monarch butterflies.