Innate colour preferences and flexible colour learning in the pipevine swallowtail
Open accessAbstract
The importance of innate preferences and learned associations in choice of flower colours were investigated for the pipevine swallowtail butterfly,Battus philenor(Papilionidae). Naive butterflies showed innate colour preferences for yellow and, to a lesser extent, blue and purple. Apart from their innate preferences, they were able to learn within 10 flower visits to associate floral colour with the presence of nectar rewards in yellow or magentaLantana camara(Verbenaceae) flowers. Continued experience resulted in greater discrimination in favour of the rewarding colour. Most individuals readily shifted their foraging behaviour when the colour of the rewarding flower was changed. A capacity for rapid and flexible associative learning presumably allows butterflies to adjust their foraging efforts in response to floral rewards that vary over space or time. 1997 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour
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Pipevine swallowtails have an innate preference for blue flowers over yellow in the laboratory.
“For example, pipevine swallowtails have an innate preference for blue flowers over yellow in the laboratory (Weiss, 1997).”
From Variation in context‐dependent foraging behavior across pollinators (2017) · cites this paper as Weiss, 1997
Much of what we have learned about color preference in butterflies comes from laboratory studies, often explored through the use of artificial flowers.
“Much of what we have learned about color preference in butterflies comes from laboratory studies, often explored through the use of artificial flowers (Kelber & Pfaff, 1997; Kinoshita et al., 1999; Weiss, 1997; Weiss & Papaj, 2003).”
From Variation in context‐dependent foraging behavior across pollinators (2017) · cites this paper as Weiss, 1997
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Variation in context‐dependent foraging behavior across pollinators
Briggs, H. M., Graham, S., Switzer, C. M., & Hopkins, R. (2017) · bioRxiv · doi:10.1101/210377 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
“Controlled laboratory studies indicate many pollinators including bees, flies and butterflies can alter their innate color preference by learning an association between nectar or pollen reward and a new color (Weiss 1997; Hollis and Guillette 2011; Blackiston et al. 2011).”
Background
- Authors
- WEISS, M. R.
- Affiliations
- University of Arizona (US)
- Corresponding author
- WEISS, MARTHA R
- ORCID
- WEISS, MARTHA R
- Venue
- Animal Behaviour
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 1997-05
- Volume
- 53
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 1043-1052
- ISSN
- 0003-3472 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2162129013
- Cited by
- 181
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 10 · 2012: 12
- FWCI
- 6.19
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Animal Behaviour (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- American Association of University Women
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Plant and animal studies
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Insect Science › Insect-Plant Interactions and Control
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Lepidoptera: Biology and Taxonomy
- Keywords
- pipevine swallowtail, Battus philenor, flower color, nectar reward, Lantana camara, foraging behavior, color discrimination, associative learning
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