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First published online November 13, 2009
Journal of Experimental Biology 212, 3810-3816 (2009)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2009
doi: 10.1242/jeb.032870

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Interspecific and intersexual learning rate differences in four butterfly species

Ikuo Kandori^1,*, Takafumi Yamaki¹, Sei-ichi Okuyama², Noboru Sakamoto² and Tomoyuki Yokoi^3,

¹ Laboratory of Entomology, Faculty of Agriculture, Kinki University, Japan
² Itami City Museum of Insects, Japan
³ Laboratory of Insect Ecology, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Japan

^* Author for correspondence (kandori{at}nara.kindai.ac.jp)

Accepted 3 September 2009

Learning plays an important role in food acquisition for a wide range of insects and has been demonstrated to be essential during flower foraging in taxa such as bees, parasitoid wasps, butterflies and moths. However, little attention has been focused on differences in floral cue learning abilities among species and sexes. We examined the associative learning of flower colour with nectar in four butterfly species: Idea leuconoe, Argyreus hyperbius, Pieris rapae and Lycaena phlaeas. All butterflies that were trained learned the flower colours associated with food. The flower colour learning rates were significantly higher in I. leuconoe and A. hyperbius than in P. rapae and L. phlaeas. Among the four species examined, the larger and longer-lived species exhibited higher learning rates. Furthermore, female butterflies showed a significantly higher learning rate than males. This study provides the first evidence that learning abilities related to floral cues differ among butterfly species. The adaptive significance of superior learning abilities in the larger and longer-lived butterfly species and in females is discussed.

Key words: associative learning, forewing length, innate colour preference, Lepidoptera, lifespan

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