Uncertainty about flying conspecifics causes territorial contests of the Old World swallowtail, Papilio machaon.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Male-male aerial contests of territorial butterflies are difficult to explain by major contest models based on game theory because of butterflies' apparent inability to inflict substantial costs on their opponent. As an alternative, the "erroneous courtship hypothesis" was presented. This hypothesis is based on the assumption that territorial butterflies cannot discriminate the sex of flying conspecifics. The hypothesis regards the aerial contest of male butterflies as an inevitable same-sex entanglement in the butterflies' behavioral sequence. To test the robustness of the hypothesis, we investigated the sex recognition abilities of the Old World swallowtail, Papilio machaon.

Results

We presented four types of flapping butterfly specimens (fresh male and f

SUBMITTER: Takeuchi T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6591982 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature