Um anel de mimetismo mülleriano em milípedes das Montanhas Apalache

A Müllerian mimicry ring in Appalachian millipedes

Paul E. Marek,1 and Jason E. Bond
+Author Affiliations

Department of Biology, Howell Science Complex, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858

Edited by May R. Berenbaum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, and approved April 10, 2009 (received for review October 17, 2008)

Abstract

Few biological phenomena provide such an elegant and straightforward example of evolution by natural selection as color mimicry among unrelated organisms. By mimicking the appearance of a heavily defended aposematic species, members of a second species gain protection from predators and, potentially, enhanced fitness. Mimicking a preexisting warning advertisement is economical because a potentially costly novel one can be avoided; simultaneously, the addition of more aposematic individuals enhances the overall warning effect. The better-known mimetic systems comprise tropical taxa, but here, we show a remarkable example of color mimicry in 7 species of blind, cyanide-generating millipedes endemic to the Appalachian Mountains of temperate North America. Because these millipedes lack eyes, there is no sexual selection or intraspecific signaling for coloration, providing an ideal system for mimicry studies. We document a Müllerian symbiosis where unrelated species vary in color and pattern over geographical space but appear identical where they co-occur. By using spectral color data, estimations of evolutionary history, and detailed field observations of species abundance, we test 4 predictions of Müllerian mimicry theory and begin to unravel the story of an elaborate mimetic diversification in the forests of Appalachia.

aposematic reflectance Apheloriini Diplopoda Brachoria
Footnotes

1To whom correspondence should be addressed at the present address: Center for Insect Science, Department of Entomology, Forbes Building, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721. E-mail: pmarek@email.arizona.edu

Author contributions: P.E.M. and J.E.B. designed research; P.E.M. performed research; P.E.M. analyzed data; and P.E.M. and J.E.B. wrote the paper.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

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