Cryptic differences in colour among Müllerian mimics: how can the visual capacities of predators and prey shape the evolution of wing colours?

Antagonistic interactions between predators and prey often lead to co-evolution. In the case of toxic prey, aposematic colours act as warning signals for predators and play a protective role. Evolutionary convergence in colour patterns among toxic prey evolves due to positive density-dependent selection and the benefits of mutual resemblance in spreading the mortality cost of educating predators over a larger prey assemblage. Comimetic species evolve highly similar colour patterns, but such convergence may interfere with intraspecific signalling and recognition in the prey community, especially for species involved in polymorphic mimicry. Using spectrophotometry measures, we investigated the variation in wing coloration among comimetic butterflies from distantly related lineages. We focused on seven morphs of the polymorphic species Heliconius numata and the seven corresponding comimetic species from the genus Melinaea. Significant differences in the yellow, orange and black patches of ...捕食者与猎物间的拮抗相互作用（antagonistic interactions）往往会引发协同进化（co-evolution）。对于有毒猎物而言，警戒色（aposematic colours）可作为向捕食者传递的警示信号，发挥保护功能。有毒猎物类群间的体色模式进化趋同，源于正密度依赖选择（positive density-dependent selection），以及通过彼此相似的体色模式，将让捕食者习得避食行为的死亡成本分摊至更大猎物类群所带来的收益。共拟态物种（comimetic species）会演化出高度相似的体色模式，但这类进化趋同现象可能会干扰猎物种群内的种内信号传递与识别，尤其针对涉及多态性拟态的物种。本研究采用分光光度法（spectrophotometry）测定手段，对来自远缘演化支的共拟态蝴蝶的翅色变异展开了研究，聚焦于多态物种红带袖蝶（Heliconius numata）的7个形态型，以及美眼蛱蝶属（Melinaea）中对应的7个共拟态物种。其黄色、橙色与黑色斑块存在显著差异，且……