Data from: The golden mimicry complex uses a wide spectrum of defence to deter a community of predators

Mimicry complexes typically consist of multiple species that deter predators using similar anti-predatory signals. Mimics in these complexes are assumed to vary in their level of defence from highly defended through to moderately defended, or not defended at all. Here, we report a new multi-order mimicry complex that includes at least 140 different putative mimics from four arthropod orders including ants, wasps, bugs, tree hoppers and spiders. All members of this mimicry complex are characterised by a conspicuous golden body and an ant Gestalt, but vary substantially in their defensive traits. However, they were similarly effective at deterring predators - even mildly defended mimics were rarely eaten by a community of invertebrate and vertebrate predators both in the wild and during staged trials. We propose that despite the predominance of less defended mimics the three predatory guilds avoid the mimics because of the additive influence of the various defensive traits.

Usage Notes
Measurements of colouration, distribution, unpalatability, and predationMeasurements of colouration, distribution, unpalatability for 100 mimics and estimates of predation in the fielddata.xls

模仿复合体通常由多个物种组成，这些物种通过相似的捕食者防御信号来阻止捕食者的侵扰。在这些复合体中，模仿者的防御能力被认为存在差异，从高度防御到适度防御，甚至完全不防御。在本研究中，我们报告了一个新的多阶模仿复合体，该复合体包括来自四个节肢动物纲的至少140种可能的模仿者，这些纲包括蚂蚁、黄蜂、昆虫、树跳蚤和蜘蛛。该模仿复合体的所有成员均以其醒目的金色身体和蚂蚁的整体形态为特征，但在防御特性上存在显著差异。然而，它们在阻止捕食者方面效果相似——即使是轻微防御的模仿者，在野外和模拟试验中也很少被无脊椎动物和脊椎动物捕食者捕食。我们提出，尽管防御能力较弱的模仿者占主导地位，但三个捕食者群体为了避免模仿者，是由于各种防御特性的叠加效应。使用说明：对100种模仿者的颜色、分布、不可口性和捕食行为的测量，以及野外的捕食估计数据存储在field_data.xls文件中。