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Dryad

Data from: Trichromacy is insufficient for mate detection in a mimetic butterfly

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Jan 03, 2025 version files 306.22 MB
Jan 03, 2025 version files 306.22 MB

Abstract

Color vision is thought to play a key role in the evolution of animal coloration, while achromatic vision is rarely considered as a mechanism for species recognition. We examined the eyeshine and photopigments of adult Adelpha fessonia butterflies (Nymphalidae: Lepidoptera), and the ultraviolet, blue and long-wavelength opsin sequences of 22 species of Adepha and Limenitis butterflies. Opsin sequences were extracted from individual RNA-seq transcriptomes of 24 adult male and female butterflies (brain + eye), combined with previously published sequences, and aligned for phylogenetic analysis. We measured reflectance spectra of white, orange and brown dorsal wing color patches of individual wild-caught female and male Adelpha fessonia and co-mimetic female and male A. basiloides butterflies. We also measured in vivo long wavelength rhodopsin dark spectra for A. fessonia and A. californica, and pupillary sensitivity for A. fessonia. We then used these reflectance spectra data in color space models and calculations of chromatic and achromatic discriminabilities (JNDs) of birds and butterflies. Taken together, our data suggest that the dorsal wing color patches of Adelpha fessonia and A. basiloides are likely indiscriminable to both birds and butterflies using both chromatic and achromatic channels.