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Male wing color properties predict the size of nuptial gifts given during mating in the Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly (Battus philenor)

Naturwissenschaften volume 100, pages 507–513 (2013)Cite this article

Abstract

In many animals, males bear bright ornamental color patches that may signal both the direct and indirect benefits that a female might accrue from mating with him. Here we test whether male coloration in the Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly, Battus philenor, predicts two potential direct benefits for females: brief copulation duration and the quantity of materials the male passes to the female during mating. In this species, males have a bright iridescent blue field on the dorsal hindwing surface, while females have little or no dorsal iridescence. Females preferentially mate with males who display a bright and highly chromatic blue field on their dorsal hindwing. In this study, we show that the chroma of the blue field on the male dorsal hindwing and male body size (forewing length) significantly predict the mass of material or spermatophore that a male forms within the female’s copulatory sac during mating. We also found that spermatophore mass correlated negatively with copulation duration, but that color variables did not significantly predict this potential direct benefit. These results suggest that females may enhance the material benefits they receive during mating by mating with males based on the coloration of their dorsal hindwing.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Jon Douglas, Melissa Lillo, Joe Nunez, and Auriel-Robert Vilaire for their help with the rearing and field work. Financial support for this study was provided in part by funds from the Undergraduate Science Education Program of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the ASU School of Life Sciences Undergraduate Research Program, and the National Science Foundation Grant IOS 1145654 to RLR.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287-4501, USA

    Parth K. Rajyaguru, Kimberly V. Pegram, Alexandra C. N. Kingston & Ronald L. Rutowski

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  1. Parth K. Rajyaguru
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  2. Kimberly V. Pegram
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  3. Alexandra C. N. Kingston
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  4. Ronald L. Rutowski
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Correspondence to Ronald L. Rutowski.

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Communicated by: Sven Thatje

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Rajyaguru, P.K., Pegram, K.V., Kingston, A.C.N. et al. Male wing color properties predict the size of nuptial gifts given during mating in the Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly (Battus philenor). Naturwissenschaften 100, 507–513 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-013-1046-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-013-1046-1

Keywords

  • Iridescence
  • Spermatophore
  • Sexual coloration
  • Swallowtail butterfly
  • Material benefits