An experimental approach to test the source of information on kinship in butterfly immatures

Abstract

This study focuses on a non-social species of butterfly of the Neotropical genus Heliconius, H. erato phyllis, where caterpillar-egg cannibalism may occur. In this species, newly hatched caterpillars are able to recognize sibling eggs, preferentially cannibalizing unrelated when there is a choice. The purpose of this study was to verify whether the information to recognize the egg as sibling or non-kin is in the chorion (maternal origin) and/or in the embryo/young caterpillar, by performing both caterpillar-egg and caterpillar-caterpillar cannibalism tests. The results of these tests suggest that the signal evaluated to recognize kinship is in the egg chorion, not in the caterpillar itself. We discuss these findings in the light of possible nutritional gain and the opportunity of encounters of immatures in a non-social butterfly.

Consequências do canibalismo lagarta-ovo na ontogenia de Heliconius erato phyllis (Fabricius, 1775) (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae)

“…Using an experimental approach, De Nardin and Araújo (2011) showed that first instar caterpillars are prone to recognizing sibling eggs. Further, it was shown that only first instar caterpillars can cannibalize and the source of information for kin recognition is in the egg chorion (DE NARDIN et al, 2015). Moreover, Williams and Gilbert (1981) showed experimentally that structures like stipule tips in Passiflora cyanea (Mast., 1872) and P. oerstedii (Mast., 1872), which resemble eggs, induce females of Heliconius cydno (H.Bates, 1864) to lay fewer eggs than when these structures are absent.…”