10.5061/DRYAD.6V834
Outomuro, David
Uppsala University
Söderquist, Linus
Uppsala University
Johansson, Frank
Uppsala University
Ödeen, Anders
Uppsala University
Nordström, Karin
Uppsala University
Flinders University
Data from: The price of looking sexy: visual ecology of a three level
predator-prey system
Dryad
dataset
2016
damselfly wing reflectance
receptor noise model
electroretinogram
Calopteryx splendens
Calopteryx virgo
discriminability
Colour Vision
2016-09-26T20:34:21Z
2016-09-26T20:34:21Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.12769
49095689 bytes
1
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Colour signals and colour vision play a pivotal role in intraspecific
communication and predator-prey interactions. However, the costs of
expressing conspicuous sexual signals at multiple trophic levels have been
largely overlooked. Sexual signals can also experience character
displacement in sympatric populations of closely-related species, leading
to potential changes in conspicuousness. We here investigate a
bird-damselfly-fruit fly predator-prey system, where two closely related
damselfly species have conspicuous, sexually selected wing coloration. The
damselflies can occur in sympatry and allopatry and reproductive character
displacement in the coloration size has been previously reported. We
quantify the damselfly wing reflectance from replicated sympatric and
allopatric populations, and use receptor noise models to investigate the
visual discriminability of the wing coloration for the bird, damselfly and
fly vision systems, against natural backgrounds. We perform
electroretinograms to study damselfly eye sensitivity. We also estimate
damselfly predation risk in natural populations. We find that the
chromatic component of wing coloration makes males highly discriminable to
the predator, but not to the prey. However, female wing coloration is
predominantly cryptic for the predator and prey, and interestingly, also
for male damselflies. A female being cryptic to conspecifics likely
reduces male harassment. The estimates of predation risk partially support
the discriminability results. We also show that there is no difference in
colour vision sensitivity between the two damselfly species and sexes, and
no difference in wing coloration or its discriminability between sympatric
and allopatric populations. Our results suggest that sexually selected
traits can be antagonistically selected by predators and prey, and that
this antagonistic selection can be sex-dependent: males are paying a large
cost in terms of conspicuousness, while females remain mostly cryptic. Our
study thus emphasizes the need for investigating visual communication at
multi-trophic levels since the degree of colour discriminability can
differ between predators, prey and the focal species.
Graded responses from the electroretinograms.This file contains the graded
responses for each individual electroretinogram. The first column
corresponds to the wavelength (lambda) and the remaining columns to the
response (in mV). The results are organized by species (virgo/splendens),
sex (female/male) and eye region (dorsal/ventral).ERGs.xlsxReflectance
spectra from natural backgrounds.This file contains reflectance spectra
for the backgrounds. The first column corresponds to wavelength (wl) and
each of the remaining columns to individual backgrounds (bkg1 to bkg78, in
percentage of reflectance).Backgrounds.csvReflectance spectra of damselfly
wings.This compressed file contains the reflectance spectra data for each
individual damselfly. The folders are organized by sex (male/female), then
by population, and then by species (virgo/splendens). The sympatric
populations are: Focks, Husby, Länna, Skytt, Stora and Valsk. The
allopatric populations for C. virgo are Ekdal, Flenm, Läbyv, Nackb, Riala
and Svana. The allopatric populations for C. splendens are Bergs, Gurre,
Hällby, Orsun, Vatve and Vikst. Each individual file is named as follows:
Population_sex (m for male/f for female) species (v for virgo/s for
splendens)_individual number_repeated measurement. For example
Hallb_fs_05_02 means that this individual was captured at Hallb
population, it is the splendens female number 5, and this is the second
repeated measurement.Reflectances damselflies.zip
Central Sweden