DOI: 10.5061/dryad.37pvmcvtv
title: Data from: Reduced palatability, fast flight, and tails: Decoding the defence arsenal of Eudaminae skipper butterflies in a Neotropical locality

description: Prey often rely on multiple defences against predators, such as flight
 speed, attack deflection from vital body parts, or unpleasant taste, but
 our understanding on how often and why they are co-exhibited remains
 limited. Eudaminae skipper butterflies use fast flight and mechanical
 defences (hindwing tails), but whether they use other defences like
 unpalatability (consumption deterrence), and how these defences interact,
 has not been assessed. We tested the palatability of 12 abundant Eudaminae
 species in Peru, using training and feeding experiments with domestic
 chicks. Further, we approximated the difficulty of capture explained by
 flight speed and quantified by wing loading. We performed phylogenetic
 regressions to find any association between multiple defences, body size,
 and habitat preference. We found a broad range of palatability in
 Eudaminae, within and among species. Contrary to current understanding,
 palatability was negatively correlated with wing loading, suggesting that
 faster butterflies tend to have lower palatability. The relative length of
 hind wing tails did not explain the level of butterfly palatability,
 showing that attack deflection and consumption deterrence are not mutually
 exclusive. Habitat preference (open or forested environments) did not
 explain the level of palatability either, although butterflies with high
 wing loading tended to occupy semi-closed or closed habitats. Finally, the
 level of unpalatability in Eudaminae is size dependent. Larger butterflies
 are less palatable, perhaps because of higher detectability/preference by
 predators. Altogether, our findings shed light on the contexts favouring
 the prevalence of single vs. multiple defensive strategies in prey.
description: # Data for: Reduced palatability, fast flight, and tails: Decoding the
 defence arsenal of Eudaminae skipper butterflies in a Neotropical locality
 by Daniel Linke, Jacqueline Hernandez Mejia, Valery N. P. Eche Navarro,
 Letty Salinas Sánchez, Pedro de Gusmão Ribeiro, Marianne Elias and Pável
 Matos-Maraví
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.37pvmcvtv](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.37pvmcvtv) If anything is missing or unclear please contact me directly: [daniel.linke@entu.cas.cz](mailto:daniel.linke@entu.cas.cz) Here is a short list of what each file contains and what the used abbreviations mean: **COI_alignment.fasta** COI sequences of the sequenced and identified experimental butterflies. **final_database_forR.csv** Basically the complete data without morphometric data of each individual. Chick: Number of the experimental chick provider: Vendor of this chick race: Race of the chick (no effect on ratio was found) colour: Colour of the pellet containing butterfly or mealworm tissue, thus the control pellet has the other colour ID: ID of the used butterfly (no ID´s for T. molitor) species / species_genetic: These two column are identical, needed for the brms analysis. Representing final species or species grouping. sex: Sex of the used butterfly (no sex determination for Tenebrio molitor) habitat: Species level habitats (habitat of H. melpomene has not been used for any analysis and has not been assessed, T. molitor was store bought) date: Date of the experiment valid_picking: Whether the chick actively picked both pellets at least once valid_consumption: Whether the chick consumed at least 50% of the control pellet weight_butterfly: Weight of the butterfly used for pellet preparation (missing wings and 3 legs) in g weight_butterfly_pellet_g: Weight of the butterfly pellet in g consumption_butterfly_g: Consumed amount of the butterfly pellet after the experiment in g weight_control: Initial weight of the control pellet in g consumption_control_g: Consumed amount of the control pellet after the experiment in g ratio: Consumption ratio (for formula see manuscript); Chick 19 did not pick control or experimental pellet ratio is thus set to null, is getting excluded during the R script tail: Whether the species has a hind wing tail or not, was later replaced by tail ratio (not assessed or used for controls) **FINAL_eudaminae_palatability.tre** contains the phylogenetic trees used for the brms analysis **morphometrics.csv** This file contains the individual morphometric measurements of all used specimens chick: Number of the experimental chick ID: ID of the used butterfly (no ID for T. molitor) SP: Species or species grouping of the used butterfly (for Spicauda_simplicius_(with_wings) no morphometrics are available as butterflies were feed to the chicks including wings, T. molitor larvae have no wings) FWL: Fore wing length in cm FWW: Fore wing width in cm FWA: Area of 1x fore wing in cm^2 AR: Aspect ratio of the fore wing WLF: Wing loading calculated using 2x fore wing area and butterfly weight in g/cm^2 **palatability supplement.mp4** Video showing the different phases of the palatability experiment **R-script.r** complete R script to run all analyses and create the shown plots **tail_ratio.csv** Added measurements on a species level for tail ratio. Were taken from photos of museum specimens collected in Peru and might not align to 100% with the specimens used in our palatability experiment. species: Species or species grouping tail_ratio: Relative length of the tail in relation to the hind wing (see methods for explanation) tail_length: Absolute length of the hind wing tail in cm (difference between hind wing tail and hind wing lengths)* *no measurements for H. melpomene or T. molitor (null has been inserted) **velocity_data.csv** Additional data for the speed / wing loading correlation. Speed of our study species were not measured but predicted by the linear regression of all other species! Ref: Origin of the value colour: Whether the value is from literature or from our study species species: Butterfly species WL: Wing loading of this species in Newton/m^2 Velocity: Velocity of this species in m/s logWL:  log transformed wing loading values in Newton/m^2 logVelocity: log transformed velocity values in m/s **wing_scans.zip** Contains all the wing scans of the butterflies used for the palatability experiment. Some photos might miss the scale but it is the same for all photos.  **videos in zip folders** (videos_001-075.7z, videos_076_150.7z, videos_151_225.7z, videos_226_310.7z) These contain the full recording of all experimental chicks.  The number mates the chick ID used throughout the databases.