Discrimination of flying mimetic, passion-vine butterflies Heliconius

摘要

Wing-beat frequency and the degree of asymmetry in wing motion were more similar among mimics than among sister species of passion-vine butterflies in the genus Heliconius. Asymmetry in wing motion is not attributed to lift production, and serves as the first clear example of a mimetic behavioural signal for a flying organism. Because the similarities in wing motion are too subtle for humans to observe with the naked eye, they serve as a previously unexplored mimetic signal.