RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 First evidence for an aposematic function of a very common color pattern in small insects
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2020.07.27.222653
DO 10.1101/2020.07.27.222653
A1 Rebeca Mora-Castro
A1 Marcela Alfaro-Córdoba
A1 Marcela Hernández-Jiménez
A1 Mauricio Fernández Otárola
A1 Michael Méndez-Rivera
A1 Didier Ramírez-Morales
A1 Carlos E. Rodríguez-Rodríguez
A1 Andrés Durán-Rodríguez
A1 Paul E. Hanson
YR 2020
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/07/27/2020.07.27.222653.abstract
AB Many small parasitoid wasps have a black-orange-black (BOB) color pattern, which is usually present in both sexes. A likely function of this widespread pattern is aposematic (warning) coloration, but this has never been investigated. To test this hypothesis, we presented spider predators (Lyssomanes jemineus), both field-captured and lab-reared individuals, to a species with the BOB pattern and a congeneric all-black species in each of four scelionid genera (Baryconus, Chromoteleia, Macroteleia and Scelio). Each spider/wasp trial was filmed for 40 minutes under controlled conditions and three behavioral responses (detect, attack, avoid) were recorded in each of 136 trials, never using the same predator and prey more than once. In order to better understand the results obtained, two additional studies were performed. First, the reflection spectrum of the cuticle of the wasp and a theoretical visual sensibility model of the spider were used to calculate a parameter we called “absorption contrast” that allowed us to compare the perception contrast between black and orange in each wasp genus as viewed by the spider. Second, acute toxicity trials with the water flea, Daphnia magna, were performed to determine toxicity differences between BOB and non-BOB wasps. By combining the results from the three types of experiments, together with a statistical analysis, we confirmed that BOB color pattern plays an aposematic role.