Two-headed butterfly vs. mantis: do false antennae matter?

• Main Authors: Tania G. López-Palafox, Carlos R. Cordero
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: PeerJ Inc. 2017-06-01
• Series: PeerJ
• Subjects: Anti-predator adaptation; Deceiving behaviour; Wing morphology; Lepidoptera; Lycaenidae; Stagmomantis limbata
• Online Access: https://peerj.com/articles/3493.pdf

The colour patterns and morphological peculiarities of the hindwings of several butterfly species result in the appearance of a head at the rear end of the insect’s body. Although some experimental evidence supports the hypothesis that the “false head” deflects predator attacks towards the rear end of the butterfly, more research is needed to determine the role of the different components of the “false head”. We explored the role of hindwing tails (presumably mimicking antennae) in predator deception in the “false head” butterfly Callophrys xami. We exposed butterflies with intact wings and with hindwing tails experimentally ablated to female mantises (Stagmomantis limbata). We found no differences in the number of butterflies being attacked and the number of butterflies escaping predation between both groups. However, our behavioural observations indicate that other aspects of the “false head” help C. xami survive some mantis attacks, supporting the notion that they are adaptations against predators.