Maxime Boutin, Manon Costa, Colin Fontaine, Adrien Perrard, Violaine LlaurensPlease use the format "First name initials family name" as in "Marie S. Curie, Niels H. D. Bohr, Albert Einstein, John R. R. Tolkien, Donna T. Strickland"
<p style="text-align: justify;">Positive ecological interactions, such as mutualism, can play a role in community structure and species co-existence. A well-documented case of mutualistic interaction is Mullerian mimicry, the convergence of colour pattern between defended individuals living in sympatry. By reducing predation pressure, Mullerian mimicry may limits local extinction risks of defended species, but this positive effect can be weakened by undefended mimics (Batesian mimicry). While mimicry was well-studied in neotropical butterflies, it remains surprisingly poorly studied in wasps and bees (Aculeata - Hymenoptera). However, only females are defended in Aculeata and this female-limited defence may modulate the effect of Mullerian mimicry on extinction risks. Here, we focus on the effect of Mullerian mimicry on extinction risk in Aculeata, using a population dynamics model for two species. We show that Mullerian mimicry has a positive effect on species co-existence, but this effect depends on sex-ratio. We found that the probability of extinction increases as the proportion of undefended males increases in the population, however co-existence still occurs if females are sufficiently abundant or noxious. Furthermore, we have shown the destabilising effect of dual sex-limited mimicry (when each sex resembles a different model) on species co-existence. In a context of massive population decline caused by anthropic activities, our findings highlight the importance of Mullerian mimicry in limiting the extinction risk of wasp and bee species.</p>
Mullerian mimicry, mutualism, population dynamics, sex-ratio, coexistence, aculeata
Biodiversity, Coexistence, Eco-evolutionary dynamics, Evolutionary ecology, Facilitation & Mutualism
