Why has transparency evolved in aposematic butterflies? Insights from the largest radiation of aposematic butterflies, the Ithomiini.

ABSTRACT: Defended species are often conspicuous and this is thought to be an honest signal of defences, i.e. more toxic prey are more conspicuous. Neotropical butterflies of the large Ithomiini tribe numerically dominate communities of chemically defended butterflies and may thus drive the evolution of mimetic warning patterns. Although many species are brightly coloured, most are transparent to some degree. The evolution of transparency from a warning-coloured ancestor is puzzling as it is generally assumed to be involved in concealment. Here, we show that transparent Ithomiini species are indeed less detectable by avian predators (i.e. concealment). Surprisingly, transparent species are not any less unpalatable, and may in fact be more unpalatable than opaque species, the latter spanning a larger

SUBMITTER: McClure M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6501930 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature