| 1. |
- Andersson, Johan, et al.
(författare)
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Male sex pheromone release and female mate choice in a butterfly
- 2007
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Ingår i: Journal of Experimental Biology. - : The Company of Biologists. - 0022-0949 .- 1477-9145. ; 210:6, s. 964-970
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In butterflies female mate choice is influenced by both visual and olfactory cues, the latter of which are important at close range. Males of the green-veined butterfly, Pieris napi, are known to release citral ( mixture of geranial and neral, 1: 1), but its role(s) and conditions of release are not known. Here, we show that male P. napi release citral when interacting with conspecific males, conspecific females, heterospecific males and also when alone. The amount of citral released correlated strongly with male flight activity, which explained more than 70% of the variation. This suggests that males do not exercise control over turning release on or off, but rather that citral is emitted as a passive physical process during flight. Electroantennogram experiments showed that female antennal response was ten times more sensitive to citral than male response. Females expressed acceptance behavior when exposed to models made with freshly excised male wings or those treated with citral following chemical extraction, but not to ones with extracted wings only. Hence, these behavioral and electrophysiological tests provide strong evidence that citral is a signal from the male directed to the female during courtship, and that it functions as a male sex pheromone.
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| 2. |
- Friberg, Magne, et al.
(författare)
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Female mate choice determines reproductive isolation between sympatric butterflies
- 2008
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Ingår i: Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. - Berlin : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0340-5443 .- 1432-0762. ; 62:6, s. 873-886
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)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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| 3. |
- Larsdotter-Mellström, Helena, et al.
(författare)
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It's All in the Mix : Blend-Specific Behavioral Response to a Sexual Pheromone in a Butterfly
- 2016
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Physiology. - : Frontiers Media S.A.. - 1664-042X. ; 7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Among insects, sexual pheromones are typically mixtures of two to several components, all of which are generally required to elicit a behavioral response. Here we show for the first time that a complete blend of sexual pheromone components is needed to elicit a response also in a butterfly. Males of the Green-veined White, Pieris napi, emit an aphrodisiac pheromone, citral, from wing glands. This pheromone is requisite for females to accept mating with a courting male. Citral is a mixture of the two geometric isomers geranial (E-isomer) and neral (Z-isomer) in an approximate 1:1 ratio. We found that both these compounds are required to elicit acceptance behavior, which indicates synergistic interaction between processing of the isomers. Using functional Ca2+ imaging we found that geranial and neral evoke significantly different but overlapping glomerular activity patterns in the antennal lobe, which suggests receptors with different affinity for the two isomers. However, these glomeruli were intermingled with glomeruli responding to, for example, plant-related compounds, i.e., no distinct subpopulation of pheromone-responding glomeruli as in moths and other insects. In addition, these glomeruli showed lower specificity than pheromone-activated glomeruli in moths. We could, however, not detect any mixture interactions among four identified glomeruli, indicating that the synergistic effect may be generated at a higher processing level. Furthermore, correlations between glomerular activity patterns evoked by the single isomers and the blend did not change over time.
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| 4. |
- Larsdotter Mellström, Helena, et al.
(författare)
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Seasonal polyphenism in life history traits : time costs of direct development in a butterfly
- 2010
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Ingår i: Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0340-5443 .- 1432-0762. ; 64:9, s. 1377-1383
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Insects with two or more generations per year will generally experience different selection regimes depending on the season, and accordingly show seasonal polyphenisms. In butterflies, seasonal polyphenism has been shown with respect to morphology, life history characteristics and behaviour. In temperate bivoltine species, the directly developing generation is more time-constrained than the diapause generation, and this may affect various life history traits such as mating propensity (time from eclosion to mating). Here, we test whether mating propensity differs between generations in Pieris napi, along with several physiological parameters, i.e. male sex pheromone synthesis, and female ovigeny index and fecundity. As predicted, individuals of the directly developing generation-who have shorter time for pupal development-are more immature at eclosion; males take longer to synthesise the male sex pheromone after eclosion and take longer to mate than diapause generation males. Females show the same physiological pattern; the directly developing females lay fewer eggs than diapausing females during the first days of their life. Nevertheless, the directly developing females mate faster after eclosion than diapausing females, indicating substantial adult time stress in this generation and possibly an adaptive value of shortening the pre-reproductive period. Our study highlights how time stress can be predictably different between generations, affecting both life history and behaviour. By analysing several life history traits simultaneously, we adopt a multi-trait approach to examining how adaptations and developmental constraints likely interplay to shape these seasonal polyphenisms.
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| 5. |
- Larsdotter Mellström, Helena, 1978-, et al.
(författare)
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Timing of Male Sex Pheromone Biosynthesis in a Butterfly – Different Dynamics under Direct or Diapause Development
- 2012
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Ingår i: Journal of Chemical Ecology. - : Springer Science+Business Media B.V.. - 0098-0331 .- 1573-1561. ; 38:5, s. 584-591
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The life history traits and behavior of the butterfly are well-known, as the species is often used as a model organism for evolutionary and ecological studies. The species has two or more generations per year in the major part of its temperate distribution, and as different selection pressures affect the different generations, both behavioral and physiological seasonal polyphenisms have been shown previously. Here, we explored the dynamics of male sex pheromone production. The two generations are shown to have significantly different scent compositions early in life; the direct developers-who have shorter time for pupal development-need the first 24 hr of adult life after eclosion to synthesize the sex pheromone citral (geranial and neral 1:1)-whereas the diapausing individuals who have spent several months in the pupal stage eclose with adult scent composition. Resource allocation and biosynthesis also were studied in greater detail by feeding butterflies C-13 labeled glucose either in the larval or adult stage, and recording incorporation into geranial, neral, and other volatiles produced. Results demonstrate that the pheromone synthesized by newly eclosed adult males is based on materials ingested in the larval stage, and that adult butterflies are able to synthesize the pheromone components geranial and neral and the related alcohols also from adult intake of glucose. In summary, our study shows that time-stress changes the timing in biosynthesis of the complete pheromone between generations, and underpins the importance of understanding resource allocation and the physiological basis of life history traits.
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| 6. |
- Mozuraitis, Raimondas, et al.
(författare)
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Anti-aphrodisiac pheromone, a renewable signal in adult butterflies
- 2019
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP. - 2045-2322. ; 9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The male butterfly Pieris napi produces the anti-aphrodisiac pheromone methyl salicylate (MeS) and transfers it to the female during mating. After mating she releases MeS, when courted by conspecific males, which decreases her attractiveness and the duration of male harassment, thus increasing her time available for egg-laying. In previous studies we have shown that males produced MeS from the amino acid L-phenylalanine (L-Phe) acquired during larval stage. In this study we show that adult males of P. napi can utilize L-Phe and aromatic flower volatiles as building blocks for production of anti-aphrodisiac pheromone and transfer it to females during mating. We demonstrate this by feeding butterflies with stable isotope labelled molecules mixed in sugar solutions, and, to mimic the natural conditions, we fed male butterflies with floral nectar of Bunias orientalis plants treated with labelled L-Phe. The volatiles from butterflies and plants were collected and identified by solid phase micro extraction, gas chromatography and mass spectrometry techniques. Since P. napi is polygamous, males would gain from restoring the titre of MeS after mating and the use of aromatic precursors for production of MeS could be considered as an advantageous trait which could enable butterflies to relocate L-Phe for other needs.
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