Alkaloid defenses of co-mimics in a putative Mullerian mimetic radiation.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Polytypism in aposematic species is unlikely according to theory, but commonly seen in nature. Ranitomeya imitator is a poison frog species exhibiting polytypic mimicry of three congeneric model species (R. fantastica, R. summersi, and two morphs of R. variabilis) across four allopatric populations (a "mimetic radiation"). In order to investigate chemical defenses in this system, a key prediction of Müllerian mimicry, we analyzed the alkaloids of both models and mimics from four allopatric populations.

Results

In this study we demonstrate distinct differences in alkaloid profiles between co-mimetic species within allopatric populations. We further demonstrate that R. imitator has a greater number of distinct alkaloid types than the model species and more total alk

SUBMITTER: Stuckert AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4101839 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature