Mapping the evolution of accurate Batesian mimicry of social wasps in hoverflies

Evolution ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Leavey ◽  
Christopher H. Taylor ◽  
Matthew R. E. Symonds ◽  
Francis Gilbert ◽  
Tom Reader

Author(s):  
Graeme D. Ruxton ◽  
William L. Allen ◽  
Thomas N. Sherratt ◽  
Michael P. Speed

This chapter concerns Batesian mimicry, which is the resemblance of a palatable species to an unpalatable or otherwise unprofitable species. Often these unprofitable models have warning signals, which the mimic has evolved to copy. The chapter also considers another well-known form of deception, namely masquerade, which is the resemblance of a palatable species to the cues of an object of no inherent interest to a potential predator such as leaves, thorns, sticks, stones, or bird droppings. Batesian mimicry and masquerade share many properties, and both can be considered examples of ‘protective deceptive mimicry’. We begin by briefly reviewing some well-known examples of protective deceptive mimicry. We then compare and contrast the various theories that have been proposed to understand them. Next, we examine the evidence for the phenomenon and its predicted properties, and finally we address several important questions and controversies, many of which remain only partly resolved.



2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Skowron Volponi ◽  
Luca Pietro Casacci ◽  
Paolo Volponi ◽  
Francesca Barbero

Abstract Background The endless struggle to survive has driven harmless species to evolve elaborate strategies of deceiving predators. Batesian mimicry involves imitations of noxious species’ warning signals by palatable mimics. Clearwing moths (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae), incapable of inflicting painful bites or stings, resemble bees or wasps in their morphology and sometimes imitate their behaviours. An entirely unexplored type of deception in sesiids is acoustic mimicry. We recorded the buzzing sounds of two species of Southeast Asian clearwing moths, Heterosphecia pahangensis and H. hyaloptera and compared them to their visual model bee, Tetragonilla collina, and two control species of bees occurring in the same habitat. Recordings were performed on untethered, flying insects in nature. Results Based on eight acoustic parameters and wingbeat frequencies calculated from slow-motion videos, we found that the buzzes produced by both clearwing moths highly resemble those of T. collina but differ from the two control species of bees. Conclusions Acoustic similarities to bees, alongside morphological and behavioural imitations, indicate that clearwing moths display multimodal mimicry of their evolutionary models.



Evolution ◽  
1982 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 1318-1322 ◽  
Author(s):  
James H. Hunt ◽  
Irene Baker ◽  
Herbert G. Baker
Keyword(s):  


PLoS ONE ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. e0190018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Elia ◽  
Giuliano Blancato ◽  
Laura Picchi ◽  
Christophe Lucas ◽  
Anne-Geneviève Bagnères ◽  
...  


2010 ◽  
Vol 277 (1694) ◽  
pp. 2577-2585 ◽  
Author(s):  
David W. Pfennig ◽  
Sean P. Mullen
Keyword(s):  


1997 ◽  
Vol 75 (7) ◽  
pp. 1014-1019 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Schoeters ◽  
J. Billen ◽  
J. O. Schmidt

Spider wasps, i.e., the family Pompilidae, in general, and those belonging to the genus Pepsis in particular, are acknowledged to possess venoms that are algogenic to humans and thus have the parsimonious functions of causing paralysis and providing defense against predators. The morphological organization of the venom system and its complex convoluted gland closely resembles that in social members of the Vespidae. These features distinguish the venom glands of the Pompilidae from those of the sibling family Mutillidae as well as those of the family Sphecidae, which lack convoluted glands. Although the venom glands in Pepsis species are very similar in morphology to those of social vespids, the lethality of Pepsis venom to mammals is several times less than that of the social common wasps. These findings suggest that in terms of the evolution of venom activity and the associated glandular structures, there was apparently no need for social wasps to develop extra parts of the venom system for producing toxic, lethal, or powerful algogenic components. All of the glandular parts of the venom gland of social wasps were already present in pompilids (and eumenids) and, presumably, in their ancestors.



2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Kikuchi ◽  
Michael Barfield ◽  
Marie E Herberstein ◽  
Johanna Mappes ◽  
Robert D. Holt


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