| Autor: |
Toure MW; Department of Biology, McGill University, 1205 Docteur Penfield, Montreal, Canada H3A 1B1.; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Gamboa, Panama., Young FJ; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Gamboa, Panama.; Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ, UK.; School of Biological Science, University of Bristol, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol, BS8 1TQ, UK., McMillan WO; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Gamboa, Panama., Montgomery SH; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Gamboa, Panama.; School of Biological Science, University of Bristol, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol, BS8 1TQ, UK. |
| Abstrakt: |
For many pollinators, flowers provide predictable temporal schedules of resource availability, meaning an ability to learn time-dependent information could be widely beneficial. However, this ability has only been demonstrated in a handful of species. Observations of Heliconius butterflies suggest that they may have an ability to form time-dependent foraging preferences. Heliconius are unique among butterflies in actively collecting pollen, a dietary behaviour linked to spatio-temporally faithful 'trap-line' foraging. Time dependency of foraging preferences is hypothesized to allow Heliconius to exploit temporal predictability in alternative pollen resources. Here, we provide the first experimental evidence in support of this hypothesis, demonstrating that Heliconius hecale can learn opposing colour preferences in two time periods. This shift in preference is robust to the order of presentation, suggesting that preference is tied to the time of day and not due to ordinal or interval learning. However, this ability is not limited to Heliconius , as previously hypothesized, but also present in a related genus of non-pollen feeding butterflies. This demonstrates time learning likely pre-dates the origin of pollen feeding and may be prevalent across butterflies with less specialized foraging behaviours. |
