Wariness to colour patterns: birds versus European red‐and‐black insects

Abstract

1. A mimetic complex of red‐and‐black insects is proposed to occur in Central Europe.2. In our study, we tested in isolation the importance of a colour pattern as the main factor responsible for the predator avoidance of the members of this putative mimetic complex by transferring the patterns of seven European red‐and‐black insects onto a palatable prey using paper stickers. Wild‐caught adult great tits (Parus major) were used as the predators.3. In general, the response of the tested birds to palatable prey carrying a conspicuous pattern differed from their responses to the real insect species demonstrated in previous studies.4. The birds avoided the pattern of Pyrrhocoris apterus most often, putatively because of their rich individual experience with the real insect from the wild, since it is the most common amongst our chosen species. Other patterns were attacked similarly to the control, inconspicuous roach pattern. Obviously, these patterns did not discourage the birds from making a closer inspection of the offered prey and revealing the edible cockroach hidden underneath the coloured paper sticker.5. We show that the method of transferring aposematic colour patterns to edible prey has substantial limitations when testing how predators generalise colour patterns within the mimetic complex.