Multimodal signalling: structural ultraviolet reflectance predicts male mating success better than pheromones in the butterfly Colias eurytheme L. (Pieridae)
Section snippets
General
We reared virgin females on alfalfa (Medicago sativa) from eggs laid by female C. eurytheme collected in Chandler, Arizona, U.S.A. in May 1998. Females used in the experiment were kept at 4°C for up to 5 days posteclosion, and were marked with a red felt-tipped pen on both ventral hindwings for identification before release in the field. Female, but not male, C. eurytheme are dimorphic: most are orange-yellow, some are white (alba). We only used orange-yellow phenotype females because alba
Results
Successful courtships lasted significantly longer on average (21.2 ± 4.8 s) than unsuccessful courtships (12.7 ± 3.39 s; paired t test: t47 = 2.93, P < 0.01; Cohen's d = 0.598). Males that were accepted by females were younger (as classified using wing wear) than rejected males (logistic regression: G1 = 12.4, N = 48, P < 0.0005; mean age difference (accepted − rejected): Cohen's d = −1.46), and all potential signal trait variables except for C27 covaried with age (Table 2).
Evaluation of the mean signal
Discussion
Our results suggest three major findings. First, female C. eurytheme prefer to mate with relatively younger males (i.e. males with less wing wear). Second, almost all UV reflectance and pheromone traits covaried with age (Table 2) yet variation among these two trait groups was largely orthogonal and therefore uncorrelated (Table 3). Third, among potential signal traits, the brightness of UV reflectance was the strongest and most informative predictor of male courtship success. Females may also
Acknowledgments
Work described here was submitted in partial fulfilment of a Ph.D. thesis at Arizona State University. We thank Emily Hayes for valuable help in the field and Laura Taylor-Taft and Joe Macedonia for help with the UV analysis. We also gratefully acknowledge Rob Raguso for loaning us his equipment to measure UV reflectance. Extremely helpful comments on this manuscript were provided by David Jennings. This material is based upon work supported by the PEO foundation and the National Science
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- 1
D. J. Kemp is at the School of Tropical Biology, James Cook University, P.O. Box 6811, Cairns, Queensland, Australia.
- 2
R. L. Rutowski is at the Arizona State University School of Life Sciences, P.O. Box 874501, Tempe, AZ 85287-4501, U.S.A.