Butterflies have a survival strategy. They mimic each other's behaviour to outsmart predators

Researchers have discovered a fascinating phenomenon amongbutterfly species, where those sharing similar colour patterns also exhibit comparable flight behaviours. This dual mimicry serves as a more potent warning signal to predators, facilitating the butterflies' survival.

Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the study conducted by researchers at the University of York usedhigh-speed video recordings to analyse the flight characteristics of 351 wild butterflies from South America.

These butterflies, representing 38 species across ten distinct colour pattern mimicry groups, were observed to understand the relationship between flight behaviour and various factors such as habitat, wing shape, and temperature.

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Flight behaviour and mimicry

Contrary to expectations, the study revealed that flight behaviour was predominantly influenced by the colour pattern mimicry group to which a butterfly belonged, rather than habitat or wing shape. This suggests that even distantly related butterflies within the same mimicry group exhibit similar flight patterns, reinforcing the warning signal to predators.

Essentially, predators not only perceive these butterflies as visually identical due to their colour patterns but also recognise their shared flight behaviour, further deterring predation.

Edd Page, a PhD student involved in the study, highlights the evolutionary significance of shared colour patterns and flight behaviour among inedible butterfly species.

"From an evolutionary perspective it makes sense to share the colour pattern between species, to reduce the individual cost of educating predators to the fact that they don't taste nice!," Page said, as quoted by ANI.

"Once a predator has tasted one, the visual clues on others indicate that they too are also inedible, but flight patterns are more complex and are influenced by several other factors such as the air temperature and the habitat the species fly in. We wanted to see whether flight corresponded to colour - could predators be driving the mimicry of flight as well as colour patterns? We were surprised to find just how strong and widespread the behavioural mimicry is," he added.

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The research focused on two butterfly tribes: Heliconiini and ithomiine. Within the Heliconiini tribe, which comprises approximately 100 species, distinct colour pattern mimicry groups were identified. Additionally, ithomiine butterflies, despite splitting from the Heliconiini tribe around 70 million years ago, displayed strikingly similar 'Tiger' colour patterns, further illustrating the prevalence of mimicry in flight behaviour across evolutionary time scales.

(With inputs from agencies)