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15 results for “egg mimicry”
How the Easter Egg Weevils got their spots: Phylogenomics reveals Müllerian mimicry in Pachyrhynchus (Coleoptera, Curculionidae)
<p>The evolutionary origins of mimicry in the Easter Egg weevil, <em>Pachyrhynchus</em>, have fascinated researchers since first noted more than a century ago by Alfred Russel Wallace. Müllerian mimicry, or mimicry in which two or more distasteful species look similar, is widespread throughout the animal kingdom. Given the varied but discrete color patterns in <em>Pachyrhynchus</em>, this genus presents one of the best opportunities to study the evolution of both perfect and imperfect mimicry. We analyzed more than 10,000 UCE loci using a novel partitioning strategy to resolve the relationships of closely related species in the genus. Our results indicate that many of the mimetic color patterns observed in sympatric species are due to convergent evolution. We suggest that this convergence is driven by positive frequency-dependent selection.</p>
Data for: Egg mimicry, not the sight of a common cuckoo, is the cue for parasitic egg rejection
<p>Many studies have found that if hosts observe a brood parasite at their nest, they use it as a cue to reject parasitic eggs. However, most previous work has simulated brood parasitic events by exposing a stuffed parasite near a host's nest. Responses to the presence of a real parasite have not yet been adequately studied under natural conditions. We therefore investigated whether great reed warblers (<em>Acrocephalus arundinaceus</em>) are more likely to reject a parasitic egg if they see a parasitizing common cuckoo (<em>Cuculus canorus</em>) at their nest than if the parasite approaches host nest unnoticed. Using video recordings of 70 nests we showed that spotting a cuckoo at the nest did not increase rejection rate of parasitic eggs, even if hosts saw the cuckoo repeatedly. Hosts instead used the level of mimicry in background colour for cuckoo egg rejection. Since not every visit by the cuckoo leads to parasitism, seeing the brood parasite may not be a reliable enough cue for the host. Therefore, our results suggest that the sight of the brood parasite at the nest may not be as important as previously thought.</p>
Data from: When perfection isn't enough: host egg signatures are an effective defence against high-fidelity African cuckoo mimicry
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Most mimicry systems involve imperfect mimicry, whereas perfect and high-fidelity mimicry are rare. When the fidelity of mimicry is high, mimics might be expected to have the upper hand against their antagonists. However, in coevolving systems, diversification of model phenotypes may provide an evolutionary escape, because mimics cannot simultaneously match all model individuals in the population. Here we investigate high-fidelity mimicry in a highly specialised, Afrotropical brood parasite-host system: the African cuckoo and fork-tailed drongo. Specifically, we test whether host egg polymorphisms are an effective defence against such mimicry. We show, using a combination of image analysis, field experiments, and simulations, that 1) egg colour and pattern mimicry of fork-tailed drongo eggs by African cuckoos is near-perfect on average; 2) drongos show fine-tuned rejection of foreign eggs, exploiting unpredictable pattern differences between parasitic eggs and their own; and 3) the high degree of interclutch variation (polymorphic egg 'signatures') exhibited by drongos gives them the upper hand in the arms race, with 93.7% of cuckoo eggs predicted to be rejected, despite cuckoos mimicking the full range of drongo egg phenotypes. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of model diversification as a defence against mimics, even when mimicry is highly accurate. </span></p>
Data from: When perfection isn’t enough: host egg signatures are an effective defence against high-fidelity African cuckoo mimicry
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How the Easter Egg Weevils got their spots: Phylogenomics reveals Müllerian mimicry in Pachyrhynchus (Coleoptera, Curculionidae)
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Data for: Egg mimicry, not the sight of a common cuckoo, is the cue for parasitic egg rejection
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Data from: Egg mimicry by the pacific koel: mimicry of one host facilitates exploitation of other hosts with similar egg types
When brood parasites exploit multiple host species, egg rejection by hosts may select for the evolution of host-specific races, where each race mimics a particular host's egg type. However, some brood parasites that exploit multiple hosts with the ability to reject foreign eggs appear to have only a single egg type. In these cases, it is unclear how the parasite egg escapes detection by its hosts. Three possible explanations are: (i) host-specific races are present, but differences in egg morphology are difficult for the human eye to detect; (ii) the brood parasite evolves a single egg type that is intermediate in appearance between the eggs of its hosts; (iii) or the parasite evolves mimicry of one of its hosts, which subsequently allows it to exploit other species with similar egg morphology. Here we test these possibilities by quantifying parameters of egg appearance of the brood-parasitic Pacific Koel (Eudynamys orientalis) and seven of its hosts. Koel eggs laid in the nests of different hosts did not show significant differences in colour or pattern, suggesting that koels have not evolved host-specific races. Koel eggs were similar in colour, luminance and pattern to the majority of hosts, but were significantly more similar in colour and luminance to one of the major hosts than to two other major hosts, supporting hypothesis (iii). Our findings suggest that mimicry of one host can allow a brood parasite to exploit new hosts with similar egg morphologies, which could inhibit the evolution of host defences in naïve hosts.
Color and W-chromosome sequence data from study on maternal inheritance of egg mimicry
<div>This dataset supports a study demonstrating that host-specific egg mimicry in the brood-parasitic African cuckoo finch <em>Anomalospiza imberbis</em> is maternally inherited. It includes egg reflectance spectra for the background colour of 188 cuckoo finch eggs from four host species in Zambia, and consensus sequences for 68 W-linked ddRAD-seq loci derived from 80 female cuckoo finches belonging to four different host-specific maternal lineages from three host species in Zambia. These data derive from two partially overlapping samples of eggs: some eggs with genetic data lacked egg spectral data, and vice versa. W-linked genetic data were all of offspring origin as they derived from embryonic or nestling tissue. Additional phenotypic data (host nest species and descriptions of egg phenotype), date and location data associated with each egg spectrum are provided in a separate file. Data on the origin of the individuals contributing to the W-linked loci are provided in Table S1 of the associated publication.</div>
Data from: Egg mimicry by the pacific koel: mimicry of one host facilitates exploitation of other hosts with similar egg types
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Color and W-chromosome sequence data from study on maternal inheritance of egg mimicry
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Data from: Egg shape mimicry in parasitic cuckoos
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Data from: Mimicry-dependent lateralization in the visual inspection of foreign eggs by American robins
Brain lateralization, or the specialization of function in the left vs. right brain hemispheres, has been found in a variety of lineages in contexts ranging from foraging to social and sexual behaviours, including the recognition of conspecific social partners. Here we studied whether the recognition and rejection of avian brood parasitic eggs, another context for species recognition, may also involve lateralized visual processing. We focused on American robins (Turdus migratorius), an egg-rejecter host to occasional brood parasitism by brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater) and tested if robins preferentially used one visual hemifield over the other to inspect mimetic vs. non-mimetic model eggs. At the population level, robins showed a significantly lateralized absolute eyedness index (EI) when viewing mimetic model eggs, but individuals varied in left vs. right visual hemifield preference. In contrast, absolute EI was significantly lower when viewing non-mimetic eggs. We also found that robins with more lateralized eye usage rejected model eggs at higher rates. We suggest that the inspection and recognition of foreign eggs represents a specialized and lateralized context of species recognition in this and perhaps in other egg rejecter hosts of brood parasites.
Egg mimicry and host selection by common cuckoos among four sympatric host species breeding within a reed habitat
<p>In the case of cuckoo parasitism, the maintenance of host specificity may be closely related to active host selection. In the reed wetlands of the Yongnian National Wetland Park, China, four host species of common cuckoos<i> </i>(<i>Cuculus canorus</i>) with similar nest structures breed sympatrically, namely, the oriental reed warbler (<i>Acrocephalus orientalis</i>) (ORW), vinous-throated parrotbill (<i>Sinosuthora webbiana</i>) (VP), reed parrotbill (<i>Paradoxornis heudei</i>) (RP) and blunt-winged warbler (<i>Acrocephalus concinens</i>) (BW). Cuckoo parasitism rates on ORW (14.5%) and BW (18.2%) were found to be significantly higher than those on two species of parrotbills (RP 1.4% and VP 0), and cuckoo eggs mimicked the size and coloration of ORW eggs significantly more closely than those of the eggs of the other three hosts. Egg recognition experiments revealed that the ability of ORW and VP to recognize nonmimetic eggs was significantly greater than that of BW and RP. Different life history strategies of the four hosts, including antiparasitic strategy, breeding time period, and population density may partly explain the difference of parasitism in this multiple cuckoo-host system. Our study suggests that determining host life history traits and antiparasitic strategies are important for a better understanding of the specificity of host selection in common cuckoos.</p>
Egg mimicry and host selection by common cuckoos among four sympatric host species breeding within a reed habitat
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Data from: Mimicry-dependent lateralization in the visual inspection of foreign eggs by American robins
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OpenNeuro
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