Abstract
Female butterflies should distinguish conspecific males from males of different species. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the female role in avoiding allospecific mating between 2 sympatric pierids,Pieris rapae crucivora (P. rapae hereafter) andP. melete. Since it is relatively rate to observe responses of a wild female to a courting male of different species, we substituted the wings of a female with those of a female of the other species. Such a female attracted allospecific males. FemaleP. melete took “mate-refusal posture” to courting males, regardless whether the male belonged to different species or not. FemaleP. melete discontinued the posture only when the male was conspecific. Such a behavioural difference indicates that the female discriminated its conspecific male. On the other hand, when only the mate-refusal posture was taken into account, a femaleP. rapae did not differently respond to courlship of males of bothP. melete andP. rapae. Having once approached, the maleP. melete attempted more frequently to copulate with its conspecific females than with allospecific ones, while the maleP. rapae indiscriminately attempted to copulate with both allospecific and conspecific females. The maleP. melete tended to persist in its courtship to females of bothP. rapae andP. melete who took the mate-refusal posture. The mate recognition system by male and female in these 2 species is discussed in connexion with the difference in mating behaviour pattern of the species.
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Ohguchi, O., Hidaka, T. Mate recognition in two sympatric species of butterflies,Pieris rapae andP. melete . J. Ethol. 6, 49–53 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02348861
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02348861