Abstract
Ants are a dominant insect group in terrestrial ecosystems and many myrmecophilous species evolve to associate with ants to gain benefits. One iconic example is myrmecophilous butterflies that often produce ant-mimicking vibrational calls to modulate ant behaviors. Despite its popularity, empirical exploration of how butterflies utilize vibrational signals to communicate with ants is scarce. In this study, we reported that the myrmecophilous butterfly Spindasis lohita produce three types of larval calls and one type of pupal call, while its tending ant, Crematogaster rogenhoferi emit a single type of call. The results of discriminant analysis revealed that calls of the two species are quantitatively similar in their signal attributes; the potential role of butterfly calls are further confirmed by the playback experiments in which certain ant behaviors including antennation, aggregation, and guarding were induced when one of the butterfly calls was played to C. rogenhoferi workers. The findings in the current study represent the very first evidence on vibrational communication between Spindasis and Crematogaster and also imply that S. lohita may have been benefited from ant attendance due to the ability to produce similar calls of the ant C. rogenhoferi.
Highlights
Ants are thought to be one of the most dominant insect groups in terrestrial ecosystems due to their sophisticated caste and complex communication systems[1]
Caterpillars of certain species are more vulnerable to predation if they are not tended by the ants[11,17], indicating that efficiency of caterpillar in attracting ants plays as a key fitness determinant for myrmecophilous caterpillars
We found that the lycaenid S. lohita produce a total of four types of call including three larval calls and one pupal call, while the ant C. rogenhoferi produces one type of call (Table 1; Figs. 1–3)
Summary
Ants are thought to be one of the most dominant insect groups in terrestrial ecosystems due to their sophisticated caste and complex communication systems[1]. Many arthropods are known to be myrmecophiles, and can be generally divided in five groups based on their behaviors[3]: (1) synechthrans are predators of ants or their broods, using high speed or repellent secretions to avoid the ants’ attack; (2) synoeketes are mostly scavengers and predators who often tend to be ignored by their hosts due to neutral odor or no odor; (3) symphiles, referred to as true guests, are accepted to some extent by their host and usually consume their host or brood for living; (4) ectoparasites and endoparasites whose life cycles rely on their host through parasitism They live inside the body surface of the host and lick up their oily secretions or bite through their exoskeleton to live; and (5) trophobionts, in which phytophagous homopterans, heteropterans and lycaenid caterpillars (such as the focal system in the current study) are included. Playback experiments are essential for testing hypotheses regarding receiver responses to signals, which include how signals function, what forms of selection that receivers might impose on signals, and how receivers are influenced by signal changes[27]
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