ArticlePloS one2017
Melanic variation underlies aposematic color variation in two hymenopteran mimicry systems.
Article in PloS one, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 40 citations in OpenAlex.
- The genetic basis of mimicry in the snowy bumble bee (Bombus niveatus) in Anatolia with insights from a color polymorphic gynandromorph.PLoS genetics · 2026Article
- Similar Genetic Routes Are Independently Targeted for Mimetic Color Convergence in Bumble Bees.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Ultrablack color in velvet ant cuticle.Beilstein journal of nanotechnology · 2024Article
- Hymenoptera and biomimetic surfaces: insights and innovations.Beilstein journal of nanotechnology · 2024Review
- Genetic Modification of a Hox Locus Drives Mimetic Color Pattern Variation in a Highly Polymorphic Bumble Bee.Molecular biology and evolution · 2023Article
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- The diversity, evolution, and development of setal morphologies in bumble bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae:PeerJ · 2022Article
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- Developmental Transcriptomics Reveals a Gene Network Driving Mimetic Color Variation in a Bumble Bee.Genome biology and evolution · 2021Article
- Integrated Analysis of Coding Genes and Non-coding RNAs Associated with Shell Color in the Pacific Oyster (Crassostrea gigas).Marine biotechnology (New York, N.Y.) · 2021Article
- A combined RAD-Seq and WGS approach reveals the genomic basis of yellow color variation in bumble bee Bombus terrestris.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Benefits of insect colours: a review from social insect studies.Oecologia · 2020Review
- Connecting biology, optics and nanomechanical properties in micro-wasps.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- A sting affair: A global quantitative exploration of bee, wasp and ant hosts of velvet ants.PloS one · 2020Review
- Unsupervised machine learning reveals mimicry complexes in bumblebees occur along a perceptual continuum.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Article
- A homeotic shift late in development drives mimetic color variation in a bumble bee.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2019Article
- Widespread Occurrence of Black-Orange-Black Color Pattern in Hymenoptera.Journal of insect science (Online) · 2019Article
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Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The stinging hymenopteran velvet ants (Mutillidae) and bumble bees (Apidae: Bombus spp.) have both undergone extensive diversification in aposematic color patterns, including yellow-red hues and contrasting dark-light body coloration, as a result of Müllerian mimicry. Understanding the genetic and developmental mechanisms underlying shifts in these mimetic colors requires characterization of their pigmentation. In this study, a combination of solubility, spectrophotometry, and melanin degradation analysis are applied to several color forms and species of these lineages to determine that orange-red colors in both lineages are comprised of primarily dopamine-derived pheomelanins. Until a few recent studies, pheomelanins were thought not to occur in insects. These results support their potential to occur across insects and particularly among the Hymenoptera. Shifts between black and orange-red colors, such as between mimetic color forms of bumble bee Bombus melanopygus, are inferred to involve modification of the ratios of dark eumelanins to red pheomelanins, thus implicating the melanin pathway in mimetic diversification. This discovery highlights the need to focus on how pheomelanins are synthesized in the insect melanin pathway and the potential for new pigments to be found even in some of our most well-known insect systems.
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