Fig 1.
Artificial flowers and their spectral reflectance.
A. Artificial flowers with seven colors; B. Spectral reflectance of the seven colors.
Fig 2.
A. Artificial P. xuthus butterfly model. B. An artificial D. chrysippus butterfly model.
Fig 3.
Response of the butterfly P. xuthus to artificial flowers of different colors and the combinations of different colors and odors.
A. Response of P. xuthus to flowers with different colors. B. Response of P. xuthus to flowers sprayed with 10% honey water. C. Synergistic effects of colors and odor on butterfly behavior. Note: Capital letters indicate significant differences among the female visits to different flower colors (P <0.05) (N = 21; LSD method); lowercase letters indicate significant differences of male visits to different colors (P<0.05) (N = 21; LSD method); * above bars indicate a significant difference between the females and males at P <0.05 (F-test, N = 6); ** indicate extremely significant difference at P <0.01 (F-test, N = 6).
Fig 4.
Chase behavior of P. xuthus during courtship and wing reflection spectrum.
A. Chase behavior of P. xuthus during courtship using both natural butterflies and butterfly models. B. Representative butterfly specimen under natural light. C. Reflective spectrum of the butterfly specimen. D. Images of butterfly specimen under UV light. Notes: Histograms with alphabet above bars indicates significant difference under the same chasing behavior at P <0.05 (N = 9; LSD method).
Fig 5.
Chasing behavior of the butterfly P. xuthus to VOCs during courtship.
A. Chasing number between males and females to butterfly males models applied with 2-ethylhexyl acetate and 2-ethyl-1-hexanol. B. Chasing number between males and females to butterfly females models applied with 2-ethylhexyl acetate and 2-ethyl-1-hexanol. C. Impact of α-farnesene on the chasing behavior of the butterflies: P. xuthus and D. chrysippus. D. Abundance of α-farnesene in females and males of P. xuthus. Notes: Capital letters indicate significant differences between the female butterfly chasing the model (P<0.05) (N = 21, LSD method) in Fig 5A, 5B, lowercase letters indicate significant differences between the male butterfly chasing model (P <0.05) (N = 21, LSD method) in Fig 5A, 5B. Lowercase letters indicate significant differences between the four types of chasing behavior (P <0.05) (N = 12, LSD method) in Fig 5C. Different lowercase letters above bars indicate significant differences in the abundance of α-farnesene between males and females (P <0.05) (F-test, N = 6) in Fig 5D.
Table 1.
Classification of VOCs in the adults of P. xuthus.