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Developmental lead exposure has mixed effects on butterfly cognitive processes

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Abstract

While the effects of lead pollution have been well studied in vertebrates, it is unclear to what extent lead may negatively affect insect cognition. Lead pollution in soils can elevate lead in plant tissues, suggesting it could negatively affect neural development of insect herbivores. We used the cabbage white butterfly (Pieris rapae) as a model system to study the effect of lead pollution on insect cognitive processes, which play an important role in how insects locate and handle resources. Cabbage white butterfly larvae were reared on a 4-ppm lead diet, a concentration representative of vegetation in polluted sites; we measured eye size and performance on a foraging assay in adults. Relative to controls, lead-reared butterflies did not differ in time or ability to search for a food reward associated with a less preferred color. Indeed, lead-treated butterflies were more likely to participate in the behavioral assay itself. Lead exposure did not negatively affect survival or body size, and it actually sped up development time. The effects of lead on relative eye size varied with sex: lead tended to reduce eye size in males, but increase eye size in females. These results suggest that low levels of lead pollution may have mixed effects on butterfly vision, but only minimal impacts on performance in foraging tasks, although follow-up work is needed to test whether this result is specific to cabbage whites, which are often associated with disturbed areas.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Meredith Steck for input on the experimental design and Eli Swanson and Sarah Jaumann for commenting on the manuscript. Input from two anonymous reviewers substantially improved this work. This study was funded by a University of Minnesota Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program Grant to KHP; the Snell-Rood lab was supported in part through NSF IOS-1354737.

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  1. Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, 1479 Gortner Ave, 140 Gortner Lab, St. Paul, MN, 55108, USA

    Kinsey H. Philips, Megan E. Kobiela & Emilie C. Snell-Rood

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  1. Kinsey H. Philips
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  2. Megan E. Kobiela
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  3. Emilie C. Snell-Rood
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Correspondence to Emilie C. Snell-Rood.

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Data are accessible in DRYAD accession doi:10.5061/dryad.7f55p.

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This article is part of the Special Issue Animal cognition in a human dominated world.

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Philips, K.H., Kobiela, M.E. & Snell-Rood, E.C. Developmental lead exposure has mixed effects on butterfly cognitive processes. Anim Cogn 20, 87–96 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-016-1029-7

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