Dissertation Research: Paving the Road from Ecological Circumstance to Evolutionary Result: An Investigation of the Dynamic Roles of Model and Mimic in a Classic Mimicry System

University Of Arizona, Tucson AZ

Investigators

Abstract

Abstract Defensive mimicry systems are typically categorized into two types: Batesian, involving a defenseless mimic and a defended model, or Mullerian, involving two or more defended co-models. More recent theoretical treatments of mimicry predict that the nature of a single mimicry system may vary over space and time. In this proposal, the work incorporates both the phenology and the geography of three butterfly species to assess the dynamics of two well-known mimicry systems: the viceroy/monarch system and the viceroy/queen. While these systems were originally classified as Batesian mimicry, accumulating evidence suggests that the viceroy is often unpalatable to avian predators, while the models, the monarch and queen, can often be palatable. Thus, the viceroy mimicry complex may span the continuum with roles of model and mimic changing through space and time. This work will document the chemistry responsible for unpalatability, spatial and temporal variation in chemical defense of the three butterfly species, and variation in palatability to vertebrate and invertebrate predators.