ArticleBMC evolutionary biology2016
Variation in cyanogenic compounds concentration within a Heliconius butterfly community: does mimicry explain everything?
Article in BMC evolutionary biology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Matador Bug and Several Related Leaf-footed Bugs (Hemiptera: Coreidae) Accumulate Cyanogens From their Host Plants.Journal of chemical ecology · 2026Article
- Cardenolides in the defensive fluid of adult large milkweed bugs have differential potency on vertebrate and invertebrate predator NaRoyal Society open science · 2024Article
- Plant Cyanogenic-Derived Metabolites and Herbivore Counter-Defences.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Pervasive mimicry in flight behavior among aposematic butterflies.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Evolution of larval gregariousness is associated with host plant specialisation, but not host morphology, in Heliconiini butterflies.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Chemical defense acquired via pharmacophagy can lead to protection from predation for conspecifics in a sawfly.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Condition dependence in biosynthesized chemical defenses of an aposematic and mimeticEcology and evolution · 2022Article
- Horizontally acquired cysteine synthase genes undergo functional divergence in lepidopteran herbivores.Heredity · 2021Article
- Assessing the Role of Developmental and Environmental Factors in Chemical Defence Variation in Heliconiini Butterflies.Journal of chemical ecology · 2021Article
- Evolutionary and ecological processes influencing chemical defense variation in an aposematic and mimeticPeerJ · 2021Article
- Using a portable hydrogen cyanide gas meter to uncover a dynamic phytochemical landscape.Applications in plant sciences · 2020Article
- Variation of chemical compounds in wild Heliconiini reveals ecological factors involved in the evolution of chemical defenses in mimetic butterflies.Ecology and evolution · 2020Review
- Sequestration and biosynthesis of cyanogenic glucosides in passion vine butterflies and consequences for the diversification of their host plants.Ecology and evolution · 2019Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAposematic 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 (Müllerian 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.
resultsWe 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.
conclusionsOur 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.
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