Search results for "chemical defences"
showing 5 items of 5 documents
Can warning signals be honest? : wing colouration and the strength of chemical defence in the female wood tiger moth (Parasemia plataginis)
2016
The warning displays of aposematic organisms signal to predators that they possess a secondary defence and are unprofitable. Within species variation exists in the strength of the signal and defence. As natural selection is expected to favour higher levels of defence, variation in such traits requires explanation. One hypothesis is that the strength of primary and secondary defences are correlated as they reflect the condition of the signaller. This study explores if variation in individual conspicuousness is an honest signal of the level of defence in the wood tiger moth (Parasemia plantaginis). P. plantaginis has conspicuous hind wing warning colouration, which in females varies from yell…
Volatile compounds released by disturbed and undisturbed adults of Anchomenus dorsalis (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Platynini) and structure of the pygidi…
2011
Volatile compounds produced by adults of Anchomenus dorsalis under undisturbed and disturbed conditions were investigated with an all-glass aeration apparatus. GC-MS analysis of the crude extracts from undisturbed and disturbed adults highlighted four major volatile compounds, undecane, heneicosane, Z-9 tricosene and tricosane, of which significantly more undecane was released by disturbed adults compared to undisturbed beetles. The pygidial glands of adults of A. dorsalis were investigated using light and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). Each gland showed dense aggregates of secretory cells organized into visually distinct lobes; a long collecting canal that drains the secretion tow…
How to fight multiple enemies : target-specific chemical defences in an aposematic moth
2017
Animals have evolved different defensive strategies to survive predation, among which chemical defences are particularly widespread and diverse. Here we investigate the function of chemical defence diversity, hypothesizing that such diversity has evolved as a response to multiple enemies. The aposematic wood tiger moth (Arctia plantaginis) displays conspicuous hindwing coloration and secretes distinct defensive fluids from its thoracic glands and abdomen. We presented the two defensive fluids from laboratory-reared moths to two biologically relevant predators, birds and ants, and measured their reaction in controlled bioassays (no information on colour was provided). We found that defensive…
Multimodal Aposematic Signals and Their Emerging Role in Mate Attraction
2018
Chemically defended animals often display conspicuous color patterns that predators learn to associate with their unprofitability and subsequently avoid. Such animals (i.e., aposematic), deter predators by stimulating their visual and chemical sensory channels. Hence, aposematism is considered to be “multimodal.” The evolution of warning signals (and to a lesser degree their accompanying chemical defenses) is fundamentally linked to natural selection by predators. Lately, however, increasing evidence also points to a role of sexual selection shaping warning signal evolution. One of the species in which this has been shown is the wood tiger moth, Arctia plantaginis, which we here put forward…
Data from: How to fight multiple enemies: target-specific chemical defences in an aposematic moth
2017
Animals have evolved different defensive strategies to survive predation, among which chemical defences are particularly widespread and diverse. Here we investigate the function of chemical defence diversity, hypothesising that such diversity has evolved as a response to multiple enemies. The aposematic wood tiger moth (Arctia plantaginis) displays conspicuous hindwing colouration and secretes two distinct defensive fluids, from their thoracic glands and abdomen. We presented fluids from lab-reared moths to two biologically relevant predators, birds and ants, and measured their reaction in controlled bioassays (no information on colour was provided). We found that defensive fluids are targe…