Butterflies Mimic Each Other's Flight Behavior to Avoid Predators
taylorvich writes:
https://phys.org/news/2024-02-butterflies-mimic-flight-behavior-predators.html
Researchers have shown that inedible species of butterfly that mimic each others' color patterns have also evolved similar flight behaviors to warn predators and avoid being eaten.
It is well known that many inedible species of butterfly have evolved near identical color patterns, which act as warning signals to predators so the butterflies avoid being eaten.
Researchers have now shown that these butterflies have not only evolved similar color patterns, but that they have also evolved similar flight behaviors, which together make a more effective warning signal to predators. The article is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Using high-speed video footage to record the flight of wild butterflies in South America, researchers at the University of York measured the wing beat frequency and wing angles of 351 butterflies, representing 38 species each belonging to one of 10 distinct color pattern mimicry groups.
Using this dataset they investigated how the flight patterns of butterflies are related to factors such as habitat, wing shape, temperature and which color pattern mimicry group the butterfly belongs to see which elements most heavily affected flight behavior.
Although the species habitat and wing shape were expected to have the greatest influence on flight behavior, the researchers found that in fact the biggest determinant of flight behavior was the color pattern mimicry group a butterfly belonged to.
This means that distantly-related butterflies belonging to the same color pattern mimicry group have more similar flight behavior than closely-related species that display different warning coloration. To a predator, the butterflies would not only look the same through their color patterns, but would also move in the same way.
Journal Reference:
Page, Edward et al, Pervasive mimicry in flight behavior among aposematic butterflies, PNAS (2024). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2300886121
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