Experimental and comparative analysis of masquerade in flea beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae)

Prey animals employ masquerade to avoid recognition by visual predators by developing a resemblance to inedible objects in their environment. Phytophagous flea beetles seem to resemble models of their own manufacture. While feeding they cause light- or dark-coloured hole-like damage on the leaves of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEuropean journal of entomology Vol. 121; no. 1; pp. 296 - 302
Main Authors SHINOHARA, Tadashi, KONSTANTINOV, Alexander S.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Ceske Budejovice Institute of Entomology 05.08.2024
Institute of Entomology, Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Science
Subjects
alticini
Animal models
Beetles
body colour
Body size
camouflage
Coleoptera
Color
Comparative analysis
Damage assessment
Efficiency
Experiments
feeding damage
Host plants
Leaves
Light
Object recognition
Phenotypes
Phenotypic variations
Predation
predator-prey interaction
Predators
Prey
Species
Spiders
Survival
Visual stimuli
Japan
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Summary:Prey animals employ masquerade to avoid recognition by visual predators by developing a resemblance to inedible objects in their environment. Phytophagous flea beetles seem to resemble models of their own manufacture. While feeding they cause light- or dark-coloured hole-like damage on the leaves of their host plants that resembles the beetle's body in colour and size. Resemblance to the model and the frequency of the model can influence the efficiency of masquerade. To examine masquerade efficiency in light- and dark-coloured beetles, we evaluated their survival benefits from resembling feeding damage in the field. This was done by using two species of beetle of different colour as prey and a jumping spider as the predator. Dark-coloured species were more likely to avoid predation when they were placed on a background with damage similar in colour to their body, whereas increased survival was not recorded for light-coloured species. The extent of the feeding damage of 34 light- and darkcoloured species of beetle was compared. Variation in the extent of the damage was associated more with host plant taxa than beetle body colour. These results indicate that the efficiency of masquerade can vary among beetle species and/or phenotypes.
ISSN:1210-5759
1802-8829
DOI:10.14411/eje.2024.031