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Female mate choice determines reproductive isolation between sympatric butterflies

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Abstract

Animal courtship rituals are important for species recognition, and a variety of cues might be utilized to recognize conspecific mates. In this paper, we investigate different species-recognition mechanisms between two sympatric butterfly sister species: the wood white (Leptidea sinapis) and Real’s wood white (Leptidea reali). We show that males of both species frequently court heterospecific females both under laboratory and field conditions. The long-lasting elaborate courtships impose energetic costs, since the second courtship of males that were introduced to two subsequent conspecific females lasted on average only one fourth as long as the first courtship. In this paper, we demonstrate that premating reproductive isolation is dependent on female unwillingness to accept heterospecific mates. We studied female and male courtship behavior, chemical signaling, and the morphology of the sexually dimorphic antennae, one of the few male traits visible for females during courtship. We found no differences in ultraviolet (UV) reflectance and only small differences in longer wavelengths and brightness, significant between-species differences, but strongly overlapping distributions of male L. sinapis and L. reali antennal morphology and chemical signals and minor differences in courtship behavior. The lack of clear-cut between-species differences further explains the lack of male species recognition, and the overall similarity might have caused the long-lasting elaborate courtships, if females need prolonged male courtships to distinguish between con- and heterospecific suitors.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Bertil Borg, Karin Norén, Veronica Nyström and two anonymous reviewers for useful comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript, and Moa Lönn for illustrations. The study was funded by The Swedish Research Council to Christer Wiklund and Anna-Karin Borg-Karlson.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, Stockholm University, SE-10691, Stockholm, Sweden

    Magne Friberg, Sami Merilaita & Christer Wiklund

  2. Department of Chemistry, Royal Institute of Technology, SE-10044, Stockholm, Sweden

    Namphung Vongvanich & Anna-Karin Borg-Karlson

  3. School of Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Cairns, 4870, Queensland, Australia

    Darrell J Kemp

Authors
  1. Magne Friberg
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  2. Namphung Vongvanich
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  3. Anna-Karin Borg-Karlson
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  4. Darrell J Kemp
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  5. Sami Merilaita
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  6. Christer Wiklund
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Correspondence to Magne Friberg.

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Communicated by D. Gwynne

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Friberg, M., Vongvanich, N., Borg-Karlson, AK. et al. Female mate choice determines reproductive isolation between sympatric butterflies. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 62, 873–886 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-007-0511-2

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