Visual and olfactory sensory responses of the butterfly Papilio maackii during foraging and courtship

Abstract

AbstractColors and chemicals are the most important cues for butterflies to localize mating partners and food. In this study, we used artificial flowers with different colors and plastic butterfly wing mimics to separate the impact of colors from other cues on foraging and courtship of the butterfly Papilio maackii. We found that males relied more on visual cues during foraging and courtship, but females responded more to olfactory signals. Males visited artificial flowers more frequently than females. However, when honey was applied on artificial flowers, the frequency of female's flower visits increased and was much higher than that of male's, suggesting that females may have stronger olfactory than visual senses. During courtship, females were passive, whereas males were very active in chasing females and driving away other males. Similar to courtship among butterflies in a natural population, males showed recognition ability to butterfly wing mimics, indicating that males could accurately identify mates using colors only without any chemical cues. We also analyzed volatiles and identified five types of male‐specific chemicals while no female‐specific chemicals were identified, suggesting that females might have used these male‐specific volatiles to recognize and accepted males during courtship. Pollination of the plant Primula sieboldii mainly depends on P. maackii, and the plant has flowers with purple and mauve colors. Coincidently, P. maackii showed color preference to blue and purple, suggesting that the butterfly and plants might have coevolved during the long course of interactions.