Multisensory integration in Lepidoptera: Insights into flower-visitor interactions.
As most work on flower foraging focuses on bees, studying Lepidoptera can offer fresh perspectives on how sensory capabilities shape the interaction between flowers and insects. Through a combination of innate preferences and learning, many Lepidoptera persistently visit particular flower species. Butterflies tend to rely on their highly developed sense of colour to locate rewarding flowers, while moths have evolved sophisticated olfactory systems towards the same end. However, these modalities can interact in complex ways; for instance, butterflies' colour preference can shift depending on olfactory context. The mechanisms by which such cross-modal interaction occurs are poorly understood, but the mushroom bodies appear to play a central role. Because of the diversity seen within Lepidoptera in terms of their sensory capabilities and the nature of their relationships with flowers, they represent a fruitful avenue for comparative studies to shed light on the co-evolution of flowers and flower-visiting insects.
Laboratory of Neuroethology, SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies), Shonan Village, Hayama, Japan.
Michiyo
M
Kinoshita
Laboratory of Neuroethology, SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies), Shonan Village, Hayama, Japan.
Finlay J
FJ
Stewart
Graduate School of Biosphere Science, Hiroshima University, Higashi-hiroshima, Hiroshima, Japan.
Hisashi
H
Ômura
D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D003116:Color; D003118:Color Perception; D005260:Female; D035264:Flowers; D007858:Learning; D007915:Lepidoptera / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D055696:Olfactory Perception; D012903:Smell
butterfly; colour vision; flower foraging; moth; olfaction