Predator dependent mimetic complexes: Do passerine birds avoid Central European red-and-black Heteroptera?

True bugs are generally, considered to be well protected against bird predation Sympatric species that have similar warning coloration are supposed to form a functional Mullerian mimetic complex avoided by visually oriented avian predators We have tested whether these assumptions hold true for four species of European red-and-black heteropterans, viz Pyrrhocoris apterus, Lygaeus equestris, Spilostethus saw-tubs, and Graphosoma lineatum We found that individual species of passerine birds differ in their responses towards particular bug species Great tits (Pants major) avoided all of them on sight, robins (Erithacus rubecula) and yellowhammers (Emberiza cutrimella) discriminated among them and attacked bugs of some species with higher probability than others, and blackbirds (Tindus merula) frequently attacked bugs of all the tested species Different predators thus perceive aposematic piey differently, and the extent of Batesian-Mullerian mimetic complexes and relations among the species involved is predator dependent