Social learning data in a foraging setting for Heliconius erato

Insects may acquire social information by active communication and through inadvertent social cues. In a foraging setting, the latter may indicate the presence and quality of resources. Although social learning in foraging contexts is prevalent in eusocial species, this behaviour has been hypothesised to also exist between conspecifics in non-social species with sophisticated behaviours, including Heliconius butterflies. Heliconius are the only butterfly genus with active pollen feeding, a dietary innovation associated with a specialised, spatially faithful foraging behaviour known as trap-lining. Long-standing hypotheses suggest that Heliconius may acquire trap-line information by following experienced individuals. Indeed, Heliconius often aggregate in social roosts, which could act as ‘information centres’, and present conspecific following behaviour, enhancing opportunities for social learning. Here, we provide a direct test of social learning ability in Heliconius using an associati..., Experimental subjects and arena
Experimental subjects originated from first-generation insectary-reared stock populations of Heliconius erato phyllis, descended from multiple wild-caught females collected in Mata do Jiqui, Natal, Brazil (5°55'39\"S, 35°10'59\"W). We maintained stock populations in large outdoor cages (3 x 3 x 2.5 m) in which free-flying butterflies were able to engage in natural social and flight behaviours, including chasing, mating and following. At night, individuals were also observed to form roosts of 2-22 individuals. Stock butterflies had access to hostplants (Passiflora misera and P. galbana) and rewarding artificial white flowers. All butterflies were individually labelled with unique IDs. The test arena was composed of purple and yellow artificial flowers. These colours were chosen given that they are, on average, both relatively unpreferred. Rewarding flowers contained a ~20% sugar solution mixed with bee-pollen supplement while unrewarding flowers were empty. ..., RStudio.

昆虫可通过主动通讯与无意社交线索获取社交信息。在觅食场景中，后者可指示资源的存在与否与品质优劣。尽管觅食场景中的社会学习在真社会性物种中十分普遍，但学界已假设，在具备复杂行为的非社会性物种（包括釉蛱蝶属蝴蝶（Heliconius））的同种个体间，同样存在此类行为。釉蛱蝶属是唯一具备主动取食花粉行为的蝴蝶类群，该饮食革新与一种特化的、空间上高度固定的觅食行为——巡回路觅食（trap-lining）密切相关。长期以来的假说认为，釉蛱蝶属物种可通过跟随经验丰富的个体获取巡回路觅食相关信息。事实上，釉蛱蝶常聚集于社交栖息群中，这类栖息群可充当“信息中心”，且该类群存在同种个体跟随行为，这提升了社会学习的发生概率。本研究采用……（原文此处截断为associati...）直接检验了釉蛱蝶属的社会学习能力，实验对象与实验装置如下：
实验对象源自红带釉蛱蝶 Phyllis 亚种（Heliconius erato phyllis）的一代实验室原种种群，该种群的亲本为在巴西纳塔尔市Jiqui森林（Mata do Jiqui，5°55′39″S, 35°10′59″W）捕获的多只野生雌性个体。我们将种群饲养于3×3×2.5米的大型室外笼舍中，自由飞行的蝴蝶可在此开展包括追逐、交配与跟随在内的自然社交与飞行行为。夜间可观察到个体聚集形成2~22只不等的栖息群。饲养种群的蝴蝶可取食西番莲属寄主植物（Passiflora misera与P. galbana）以及带有奖赏的人工白色花朵。所有蝴蝶均被标记有唯一的个体识别编号。实验装置由紫色与黄色的人工花朵组成。选择这两种颜色是因为平均而言，蝴蝶对它们的偏好度均较低。带有奖赏的花朵内含有20%左右的蔗糖溶液与蜂花粉补充剂的混合液，无奖赏的花朵则为空置状态。……RStudio。