Data from: No link between nymph and adult colouration in shield bugs: weak selection by predators

Many organisms use different anti-predator strategies throughout their
life, but little is known about the reasons or implications of such
changes. For years it has been suggested that selection by predators
should favour uniformity in local warning signals. If this is the case, we
would expect high resemblance in colour across life stages in aposematic
animals where young and adults share similar morphology and habitat. In
this study we used shield bugs (Hemiptera: Pentatomoidea) to test whether
colour and colour diversity evolve similarly at different life stages.
Since many of these bugs are considered to be aposematic, we also combined
multi-species analyses with predation experiments on the cotton harlequin
bug to test whether there is evidence of selection for uniformity in
colour across life stages. Overall, we show that the diversity of colours
used by both life stages is comparable, but adults are more cryptic than
nymphs. We also demonstrate that nymphs and adults of the same species do
not tend to look alike. Experiments on our model system suggest that
predators can generalise among life stages that look different, and
exhibit strong neophobia. Altogether, our results show no evidence of
selection favouring colour similarity between adults and nymphs in this
speciose clade.