Vallin et al., 2005 (peacock butterflies and blue tits)

Question 1

The peacock butterfly is a … … mimic when resting, but shifts to … defence when disturbed by performing a repeated sequence of movements exposing 4 major … on the … side of the wings accompanied by a … ….

Answer 1

cryptic leaf, active, eyespots, dorsal, hissing noise

Question 2

This study tested the effects of these defence mechanisms by presenting butterflies to wild-caught blue tits and experimentally manipulating the butterflies in order to … the different elements of their defence strategy and see relatively how effective and important each element is.

Answer 2

isolate

Question 3

The six kinds of experimentally manipulated living peacock butterflies were:

Answer 3

• Butterflies with eyes painted over and their controls (paint on another part of the dorsal side of their wing)
• Butterflies with their sound production aborted by removing a small part of their wing and their controls (removing an equally-sized area of the hindwing not used to produce hissing sound)
• Butterflies with eyespots painted over and sound production aborted and their controls

Question 4

The results showed that … alone, or in combination with …, acted as an effective defence.

Answer 4

eyespots, sound

Question 5

Only … out of 34 butterflies with intact eyespots was killed, whereas … out of 20 butterflies without eyespots were killed.

Answer 5

1, 13

Question 6

The killed peacocks were …, indicating that they are not …. Hence, intimidation by bluffing can be an efficient means of defence for edible prey.

Answer 6

eaten, distasteful

Question 7

Butterflies generally suffer from substantial … …, which has selected for effective …-… defence, especially in …-… species such as the peacock butterfly.

Answer 7

predation pressure, anti-predatory, long-lived

Question 8

The hissing noise is produced by…

Answer 8

rubbing (structures on) the forewings and hindwing together

Question 9

A … … prevented the butterflies from escaping by simply flying away

Answer 9

cold temperature

mimics cold spring or summer temperatures

Question 10

Experiment carried out in …

Answer 10

Sweden

Question 11

Blue tits raise their young on a pure … diet and therefore possess substantial …-… skills

Answer 11

insect, insect-catching

Question 12

Before the trials began, mealworms were placed in a small plastic feeding tray at the far end of the log. This was to…

Answer 12

help the birds associate the low with food and encourage them to conduct a thorough search for food in this area of the room

Question 13

Trials lasted … … (but were terminated earlier if the butterfly was captured and consumed)

Answer 13

30 minutes

Question 14

Most butterflies … their bodies and … on the log to … the movement of the bird (after flicking their wings open), which may have been to increase the intimidating effect of the display

Answer 14

tilted, rotated, follow

Question 15

There was no significant difference in … between…

Answer 15

survival, butterflies with or without the ability produce sound

• an no interaction between eyespots and sound could be detected

Question 16

There was a significantly higher rate of survival in butterflies…

Answer 16

with eyespots compared to those without eyespots

Question 17

Butterflies with covered eyespots showed more intense …-… behaviour. This appeared to positively correlate with the…

Answer 17

wing-flicking, length of time that blue tits spent within 10cm of the butterfly - may explain butterfly behaviour

Question 18

The distance to the bird when the butterflies initiated wing-flicking was found to be greater…

Answer 18

at the second interaction between the two than at their first interaction (maybe because butterfly can no longer attempt to remain undetected - butterfly incorporates into its decision-making the possibility that it has not yet been detected)

Question 19

The … are very effective in protecting the peacocks against … predation.

Answer 19

eyespots, passerine

Question 20

The study found no indication that the combined effect of sound and eyespots is more effective compared to…

Answer 20

eyespots only

Question 21

Another study suggested that the sound may have an intimidating effect on …

Answer 21

bats (as they reacted to the sound)

• it is possible that there are other butterfly predators or situations, yet to be investigated, where the combined effect is needed in order to protect the butterfly

Question 22

Commas, which rely solely on crypsis as anti predator defence…

Answer 22

never shifts its behaviour to more active defence, no matter how closely the predator approaches

• the distance at which a butterfly starts to flick its wings when approached by a bird is associated with the butterfly’s type of antipredator device

Question 23

This study was unable to find or reject a … effect of the peacock’s sound protection with the eyespot protection.

Answer 23

synergistic

- as eyespots were so effective (only 1 out of 34 attacked)