Journal
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
Volume 9, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
FRONTIERS MEDIA SA
DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2021.650069
Keywords
insect; photoreceptor; spectral sensitivity; action spectrum; chromaticity; subjective brightness
Categories
Funding
- JSPS KAKENHI [18H05273, 17K07485]
- SOKENDAI Advanced Sciences Synergy Program (SASSP)
- Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [18H05273, 17K07485] Funding Source: KAKEN
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The study demonstrates that the small white butterfly Pieris rapae uses color vision while foraging for flowers, being able to discriminate visual stimuli based on chromatic content independent of intensity. The butterflies were trained to select certain colors on paper disks, showing true color vision by choosing the trained color even among an array of different shades of gray. Additionally, Pieris butterflies innately prefer blue and yellow disks, which aligns with their flower preference in the field to some extent.
We demonstrate that the small white butterfly, Pieris rapae, uses color vision when searching flowers for foraging. We first trained newly emerged butterflies in a series of indoor behavioral experiments to take sucrose solution on paper disks, colored either blue, green, yellow, or red. After confirming that the butterflies were trained to visit a certain colored disk, we presented all disks simultaneously. The butterflies selected the disk of trained color, even among an array of disks with different shades of gray. We performed the training using monochromatic lights and measured the action spectrum of the feeding behavior to determine the targets' Pieris-subjective brightness. We used the subjective brightness information to evaluate the behavioral results and concluded that Pieris rapae butterflies discriminate visual stimuli based on the chromatic content independent of the intensity: they have true color vision. We also found that Pieris butterflies innately prefer blue and yellow disks, which appears to match with their flower preference in the field, at least in part.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available