圖片來源：Susan Finkbeiner
每當(dāng)夜晚睡覺的時(shí)候來臨,，紅色郵差蝶（Heliconius erato）總是會(huì)四五成群地棲息在一起,。為了搞清其中的奧秘，研究人員在巴拿馬和哥斯達(dá)黎加的森林中懸掛了數(shù)以千計(jì)的假紅色郵差蝶,。
為了測量鳥類的攻擊情況,，研究人員計(jì)算了仿制品的模擬黏土軀干以及涂蠟銅版紙翅膀上的鳥喙印記。
他們發(fā)現(xiàn),，與5只為一組棲息的模型相比,，單只棲息或成對(duì)棲息的假蝴蝶受攻擊的可能性是前者的6倍。
這一影響超越了團(tuán)隊(duì)成員之間僅是簡單分擔(dān)風(fēng)險(xiǎn)的假設(shè)——作為一個(gè)整體,，由5只紅色郵差蝶組成的團(tuán)隊(duì)比一只單獨(dú)的蝴蝶更不容易遭受鳥類的攻擊,。
美國加利福尼亞大學(xué)歐文分校的昆蟲學(xué)家Susan D. Finkbeiner和巴拿馬的同事一道，在3月20日的英國《皇家學(xué)會(huì)學(xué)報(bào)B》Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 網(wǎng)絡(luò)版上報(bào)告了這一研究成果,。
研究人員提出,，蝴蝶身上旨在向掠食者宣告其毒性的明亮標(biāo)記在成組放大后會(huì)變得更加有效。（生物谷Bioon.com）
doi:10.1098/rspb.2012.0203
PMC:
PMID:
The benefit of being a social butterfly: communal roosting deters predation
Finkbeiner, Susan D.; Briscoe, Adriana D.; Reed, Robert D.
Aposematic passion-vine butterflies from the genus Heliconius form communal roosts on a nightly basis. This behaviour has been hypothesized to be beneficial in terms of information sharing and/or anti-predator defence. To better understand the adaptive value of communal roosting, we tested these two hypotheses in field studies. The information-sharing hypothesis was addressed by examining following behaviour of butterflies departing from natural roosts. We found no evidence of roost mates following one another to resources, thus providing no support for this hypothesis. The anti-predator defence hypothesis was tested using avian-indiscriminable Heliconius erato models placed singly and in aggregations at field sites. A significantly higher number of predation attempts were observed on solitary models versus aggregations of models. This relationship between aggregation size and attack rate suggests that communally roosting butterflies enjoy the benefits of both overall decreased attack frequency as well as a prey dilution effect. Communal roosts probably deter predators through collective aposematism in which aggregations of conspicuous, unpalatable prey communicate a more effective repel signal to predators. On the basis of our results, we propose that predation by birds is a key selective pressure maintaining Heliconius communal roosting behaviour.
