Interspecific and intersexual learning rate differences in four butterfly species

Abstract

SUMMARYLearning plays an important role in food acquisition for a wide range of insects and has been demonstrated to be essential during flower foraging in taxa such as bees, parasitoid wasps, butterflies and moths. However, little attention has been focused on differences in floral cue learning abilities among species and sexes. We examined the associative learning of flower colour with nectar in four butterfly species: Idea leuconoe, Argyreus hyperbius, Pieris rapae and Lycaena phlaeas. All butterflies that were trained learned the flower colours associated with food. The flower colour learning rates were significantly higher in I. leuconoe and A. hyperbius than in P. rapae and L. phlaeas. Among the four species examined, the larger and longer-lived species exhibited higher learning rates. Furthermore, female butterflies showed a significantly higher learning rate than males. This study provides the first evidence that learning abilities related to floral cues differ among butterfly species. The adaptive significance of superior learning abilities in the larger and longer-lived butterfly species and in females is discussed.Key words: associative learning, forewing length, innate colour preference, Lepidoptera, lifespan. THE JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY3811 Learning rate differences in butterflies Idea leuconoe (Butler) (Danaidae)We used laboratory-reared individuals from the Itami City Museum of Insects, Itami, Osaka, Japan. Butterflies were originally collected in Ishikawa, Uruma, Okinawa, Japan. One to three larvae were reared in a 500ml or 860ml transparent plastic cup on fresh leaves of Parsonia alboflavescens (Dennstedt) Mabberley at 22-25°C and 15h:9h L:D in an incubation room. Argyreus hyperbius hyperbius (Linnaeus) (Nymphalidae)Adult females and larvae were obtained near the Nara campus of Kinki University, Nakamachi, Nara, Japan, from July to August 2004. Adult females were then allowed to oviposit eggs. About 10 larvae were reared together on fresh leaves of several Viola species in 450ml transparent plastic cups at room temperature (range of daily mean: 24-30°C) and natural daylength (range: 14h:10h L:D to 15.5h:8.5h L:D) within the laboratory. Pieris rapae crucivora (Boisduval) (Pieridae)Adult females and larvae ware collected near the Nara campus of Kinki University from September to October 2004. Adult females oviposited eggs, and the larvae were reared on fresh leaves of Brassica oleracea L. and Raphanus sativus L. in 450ml transparent plastic cups (10 larvae per cup) at room temperature (14-29°C) and natural daylength (12h:12h L:D to 14h:10h L:D) within the laboratory.

Facial patterns in a tropical social wasp correlate with colony membership

“…Raine and Chittka 2007) to eight, as in our study, to as many as 10 or 12 (Lunau 1990; e.g. Giurfa et al 1995;Kandori et al 2009). There are also variations in the spatial arrangements, e.g.…”

“…Several studies have described spontaneous colour preferences in bees (Lunau 1990;Giurfa et al 1995;Chittka et al 2004;Dyer et al 2016), butterflies (Ilse 1928;Swihart and Swihart 1970;Weiss 1997;Kinoshita et al 1999;Kandori et al 2009;Blackiston et al 2011), moths (Kelber 1996;Goyret et al 2008), and hoverflies (Lunau and Wacht 1994). The aims of the present study were to explore a comparative approach with bees and to identify potential differences in spontaneous colour responses between temperate and tropical bees, comparing the responses of three social bee species that were tested under the same conditions.…”

“…Testing pollinators in a comparative approach, with similar methods and stimuli (e.g. Kandori et al 2009;Kandori and Yamaki 2012), can be useful for gaining further insights into the adaptiveness and mechanisms underlying spontaneous colour preferences.…”

A Comparative Study of Relational Learning Capacity in Honeybees (Apis mellifera) and Stingless Bees (Melipona rufiventris)

“…Species-specific differences in learning performance have been shown in many insect groups including bees, parasitoid wasps, and butterflies [29], [39]–[42]. However, natural within-species variations can affect between-species comparisons.…”

Effects of Foliage Color on the Landing Response ofPieris rapae(Lepidoptera: Pieridae)

“…For many herbivorous insects, yellow can act as a superoptimal stimulus that elicits alightment on living plants (Prokopy and Owens 1983). Although B. rapa ßower petals are yellow and P. rapae females prefer to land on yellow artiÞcial ßowers (Kandori et al 2009), we saw no evidence that the female butterßies were especially attracted to the yellowÐ green leaves or mistook the leaves for yellow ßowers and nectaring. Our landing results are similar to those reported in previous studies that have shown an innate landing preference for green foliage (SnellRood andPapaj 2009, Zheng et al 2010).…”