ArticleEcology and evolution2018
Evolution of ontogenic change in color defenses of swallowtail butterflies.
Article in Ecology and evolution, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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17 citing papers in PubMed, 40 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Pierid Butterflies, Legume Hostplants, and Parasitoids in Urban Areas of Southern Florida.Insects · 2024Article
- Sex and stress modulate pupal defense response in tobacco hornworm.Current zoology · 2023Article
- Lactobacillus for ribosome peptide editing cancer.Clinical & translational oncology : official publication of the Federation of Spanish Oncology Societies and of the National Cancer Institute of Mexico · 2023Review
- Towards an integrative approach to understanding collective behaviour in caterpillars.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Review
- The effectiveness of eyespots and masquerade in protecting artificial prey across ontogenetic and seasonal shifts.Current zoology · 2022Article
- The impact of life stage and pigment source on the evolution of novel warning signal traits.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2022Article
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- Notch and Delta Control the Switch and Formation of Camouflage Patterns in Caterpillars.iScience · 2020Article
- No link between nymph and adult coloration in shield bugs: weak selection by predators.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2020Article
- From cryptic to colorful: Evolutionary decoupling of larval and adult color in butterflies.Evolution letters · 2020Article
- Antipredator strategies of pupae: how to avoid predation in an immobile life stage?Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2019Review
- Evolution of ontogenic change in color defenses of swallowtail butterflies.Ecology and evolution · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Natural selection by visually hunting predators has led to the evolution of color defense strategies such as masquerade, crypsis, and aposematism that reduce the risk of predation in prey species. These color defenses are not mutually exclusive, and switches between strategies with ontogenic development are widespread across taxa. However, the evolutionary dynamics of ontogenic color change are poorly understood. Using comparative phylogenetics, we studied the evolution of color defenses in the complex life cycles of swallowtail butterflies (family Papilionidae). We also tested the relative importance of life history traits, chemical and visual backgrounds, and ancestry on the evolution of protective coloration. We found that vulnerable early- and late-instar caterpillars of species that feed on sparsely vegetated, toxic plants were aposematic, whereas species that feed on densely vegetated, nontoxic plants had masquerading and cryptic caterpillars. Masquerading caterpillars resembled bird droppings at early instars and transitioned to crypsis with an increase in body size at late instars. The immobile pupae-safe from motion-detecting, visually hunting predators-retained the ancestral cryptic coloration in all lineages, irrespective of the toxic nature of the host plant. Thus, color defense strategy (masquerade, crypsis, or aposematism) at a particular lifestage in the life cycle of swallowtail butterflies was determined by the interaction between life history traits such as body size and motion levels, phytochemical and visual backgrounds, and ancestry. We show that ontogenic color change in swallowtail butterflies is an adaptive response to age-dependent vulnerability to predation.
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