Geographic Variation in Philippine Mimicry System: Hypothesized Widespread Coral Snake (Hemibungarus calligaster) Mimicry by Lepidopteran Larvae (Bracca sp.) on Luzon Island, Philippines

摘要

Aposematic Batesian mimicry of elapine coral snakes has been widely documented, with the most well-known and highly referenced phenomena occurring between the highly venomous coral snakes of the New World (Leptomicrurus, Micruroides , and Micrurus) and a number of relatively harmless colubrine snakes (e.g., Lampropeltis triangulum ssp.; Brodie 1993; Greene and McDiarmid 1981; Greene and McDiarmid 2005). Less common are similar cases of mimicry of the Old World coral snakes (Hemibungarus, Calliophis). A number of experimental studies have documented apparent increased fitness of relatively harmless species that, even to varying degrees, mimic the aposematic coloration of the highly venomous model species (Brodie 1993; Brodie and Janzen 1995). In such studies, correlations between the model species' abundance and the quality of mimicry indicate an underlying geographic variation in a given mimic's level of similarity to the model species (Harper and Pfennig 2007). Although this system of mimicry has been documented and studied with colubrine mimics, general Aposematic Batesian mimicry systems involving arthropods are much more common (Greene and McDiarmid 1981; Brodie and Moore 1995).