Foraging behavior of the dead leaf butterfly, Kallima inachus.

PubMed

Tang, Yuchong; Zhou, Chengli; Chen, Xiaoming; Zheng, Hua

2013-01-01

The behavioral responses of foraging adults of Kallima inachus (Boisduval) (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) to four colors and to six different fermented fruit juices were observed in order to determine the cues used by foraging adults. According to the results, adults did not show a behavioral response to red, yellow, purple, or white artificial flowers without food odors, but flowers with the fermented pear juice strongly attracted them, and they showed a behavioral response to fermented juices of the six fruits (pear, apple, banana, watermelon, orange, and persimmon) with no statistically significant preference. The fruit volatiles were collected using dynamic headspace adsorption, and the volatile components were analyzed by auto thermal-desorption gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to assess which volatiles existed in the fruits. Only alcohols, esters, and ketones were common in the volatiles of all six fermenting fruits. The five volatile components found in the six fruits, as well as two others found to be in other fermented foods by previous studies, were selected to test the behavioral and electroantennogram (EAG) responses of naive adults to estimate behavioral preference and antennal perception. In field behavioral tests, alcohols were the most attractive, followed by esters, while α-pinene, butanone, and acetic acid were much less attractive. Relative to other volatile combinations and ethanol alone, the mixture of ethyl acetate and ethanol attracted the most feeding adults. The number of adults attracted was significantly positively correlated with the concentration of both ethanol and ethyl acetate. The EAG responses of naive adults showed that the EAG responses to 3-methyl-1-butanol, isoamyl acetate, ethyl acetate, α-pinene, butanone, and acetic acid were all higher than those to ethanol (100%) at doses of either 5 µl/mL or 50 µl/mL. Sexual differences only existed in 3-methyl-1-butanol and acetic acid at particular concentrations. Sexual differences

Gradual and contingent evolutionary emergence of leaf mimicry in butterfly wing patterns.

PubMed

Suzuki, Takao K; Tomita, Shuichiro; Sezutsu, Hideki

2014-11-25

Special resemblance of animals to natural objects such as leaves provides a representative example of evolutionary adaptation. The existence of such sophisticated features challenges our understanding of how complex adaptive phenotypes evolved. Leaf mimicry typically consists of several pattern elements, the spatial arrangement of which generates the leaf venation-like appearance. However, the process by which leaf patterns evolved remains unclear. In this study we show the evolutionary origin and process for the leaf pattern in Kallima (Nymphalidae) butterflies. Using comparative morphological analyses, we reveal that the wing patterns of Kallima and 45 closely related species share the same ground plan, suggesting that the pattern elements of leaf mimicry have been inherited across species with lineage-specific changes of their character states. On the basis of these analyses, phylogenetic comparative methods estimated past states of the pattern elements and enabled reconstruction of the wing patterns of the most recent common ancestor. This analysis shows that the leaf pattern has evolved through several intermediate patterns. Further, we use Bayesian statistical methods to estimate the temporal order of character-state changes in the pattern elements by which leaf mimesis evolved, and show that the pattern elements changed their spatial arrangement (e.g., from a curved line to a straight line) in a stepwise manner and finally establish a close resemblance to a leaf venation-like appearance. Our study provides the first evidence for stepwise and contingent evolution of leaf mimicry.　 Leaf mimicry patterns evolved in a gradual, rather than a sudden, manner from a non-mimetic ancestor. Through a lineage of Kallima butterflies, the leaf patterns evolutionarily originated through temporal accumulation of orchestrated changes in multiple pattern elements.

Importance of body rotation during the flight of a butterfly.

PubMed

Fei, Yueh-Han John; Yang, Jing-Tang

2016-03-01

In nature the body motion of a butterfly is clearly observed to involve periodic rotation and varied flight modes. The maneuvers of a butterfly in flight are unique. Based on the flight motion of butterflies (Kallima inachus) recorded in free flight, a numerical model of a butterfly is created to study how its flight relates to body pose; the body motion in a simulation is prescribed and tested with varied initial body angle and rotational amplitude. A butterfly rotates its body to control the direction of the vortex rings generated during flapping flight; the flight modes are found to be closely related to the body motion of a butterfly. When the initial body angle increases, the forward displacement decreases, but the upward displacement increases within a stroke. With increased rotational amplitudes, the jet flows generated by a butterfly eject more downward and further enhance the generation of upward force, according to which a butterfly executes a vertical jump at the end of the downstroke. During this jumping stage, the air relative to the butterfly is moving downward; the butterfly pitches up its body to be parallel to the flow and to decrease the projected area so as to avoid further downward force generated. Our results indicate the importance of the body motion of a butterfly in flight. The inspiration of flight controlled with body motion from the flight of a butterfly might yield an alternative way to control future flight vehicles.