DOI: 10.5061/dryad.b8gtht7kp
title: Data from: Exploring polymorphism in a palatable prey: Predation risk and frequency-dependence in relation to distinct levels of conspicuousness

description: Camouflage and warning signals are different anti-predator strategies,
 which offer an excellent opportunity to study the evolutionary forces
 acting on prey appearance. Edible prey often escape detection via
 camouflage, which usually leads to apostatic selection favoring rare
 morphs. By contrast, defended prey often display conspicuous coloration
 acting as warning signals to predators, which usually leads to positive
 frequency-dependence and signal uniformity. However, when two morphs of
 the same species vary greatly in conspicuousness, the maintenance of both
 cryptic and conspicuous forms in profitable prey populations remains
 enigmatic. Using the white and melanic morphs of the invasive box tree
 moth (Cydalima perspectalis) presented at three different frequencies, we
 investigate a) the palatability of caterpillars and adult moths to birds,
 b) predation rates on the less conspicuous melanic morph, and c) the role
 of frequency-dependence in balancing morph frequencies. Our results show
 that caterpillars are distasteful for birds but not adult moths, which are
 fully palatable. We found that the less conspicuous, melanic morph,
 benefits from reduced predation due to its lower detectability. The more
 conspicuous, white morph, instead, is more predated and is best off when
 common, suggesting positive-frequency dependence. These results offer new
 insights into the evolution of color polymorphism and prey defenses in a
 polymorphic moth species. Further investigation is required to understand
 the role of different predation regimes on the maintenance of the
 polymorphism in this species, and test if additional selection pressures
 operate in natural populations.
description: # Exploring polymorphism in a palatable prey: Predation risk and
 frequency-dependence in relation to distinct levels of conspicuousness
 This dataset contains raw
 data and code for analyses concerning the aforementioned article. ##
 Description of the data and file structure ### **Directory structure** ```
 |− Detection.Rmd |- Palatability.Rmd |- Permutaion_analysis.Rmd |-
 Spectra.Rmd |- Vision_model.Rmd |- data/ |- |- Bird_info.csv |- |-
 detection.csv |- |- palatability_adults_boxtreemoth.csv |- |-
 palatability_clean.csv |- |- palatability_caterpillars.csv |- |- spectra/
 |- |- |- box_tree/ |- |- |- |- (several files) |- |- |- camouflage_net/ |-
 |- |- |- (several files) |- |- |- moths/ |- |- |- |- (several files) ```
 ### **Description of each file** #### **data/** * **Bird_info.csv:**
 contains the individual information about birds, such as age, sex and ring
 number. * IDBird: unique identification number given to each bird tested
 in the experiment * Ring_Nb: unique ring number given to the bird for
 monitoring purposes by the Finnish Museum of Natural History * Sexe: sex
 of the bird * Age: age of the bird * Wing_length: wing length in
 millimeters (mm) * Weight_In: weight at catching date in grams (g) *
 Weight_Out: weight at releasing date in grams (g) * Catch_Date: day when
 the bird was catched in the format dd/mm/yy * Release_Date: day when the
 bird was released in the format dd/mm/yy * Adult_Palatability_Date: date
 when the bird was tested in adult palatability experiment in the format
 dd/mm/yy * Overnight_Training_Date: date when the bird was placed
 overnight in the experimental room * Adult_Detectability_Date: date when
 the bird was tested in detection experiment in the format dd/mm/yy *
 IDTreatment: treatment ID (i.e. 50B50N, 20B80N or 80B20N) * IDTrial: Trial
 ID (i.e. 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc. trial of the same treatment) *
 Caterpillar_Date: date when the bird was tested in caterpillar
 palatability experiment in the format dd/mm/yy * **detection.csv**:
 contains the data for the detection experiment. For knowing how the time
 variables are defined, please refer to the paper. Each line represents a
 moth that was placed in the experimental ground, hence each trial has 30
 lines. * IDBird: unique identification number given to each bird tested in
 the experiment * IDTreatment: ureatment ID (i.e. 50B50N, 20B80N or 80B20N)
 * IDTrial: trial ID (i.e. 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc. trial of the same treatment)
 * StartTime: time when when the experiment started expressed in hh:mm:ss *
 EndTime: time when when the experiment ended expressed in hh:mm:ss *
 Duration: duration of the experiment in minutes (min) * FoodDeprived:
 interval in which the bird was food deprived in minutes (min) *
 GridPosition: position of the moth in the experimental grid (e.g. A7, B3,
 etc.) * ButterflyColor: colour form of the moth (B = white form, N =
 melanic form) * Found: binary, indicates whether the moth was found by the
 bird during the trial (either 0 = not found or 1 = found) * Order:
 catching order, the first moth found is marked as 1, etc. * RestPerchTime:
 time spent by the bird on the perch or resting (i.e. not actively
 searching for moths on the ground) in seconds * SearchTime: time spent by
 the bird actively searching for moths in seconds *
 **palatability_adults_boxtreemoth.csv**: contains the data for the
 palatability experiments ran using adult moths. * IDBird: unique
 identification number given to each bird tested in the experiment * Day:
 day when the experiment was performed in the format dd/mm/yy * StartTime:
 time of the day when the experiment began in the format hh:mm * EndTime:
 time of the day when the experiment ended in the format hh:mm * Duration:
 duration of the experiments in minutes (min) * FoodDeprived: interval in
 which the bird was food deprived in minutes (min) * Prey: prey type (P =
 peanut, B = white moth, N = melanic moth) * Order: prey order according to
 how they were given to the bird * PerchTime: time spent before coming onto
 the perch of the experimental cage, hence before seeing the prey
 presented, in seconds (s) * EatTime: time spent on the perch, before
 catching the prey in seconds (s) * Behavior: categorical, indicates if the
 prey was eaten or refused or any intermediate situation (EAT = prey was
 eaten, REF = prey was refused, CATCH = prey was catched but not eaten,
 HALF = prey was partially eaten) * HandlingTime: time spent eating the
 prey. Since it is often very short, this variable was seldom measured *
 Peanut_Order: categorical, indicates whether the peanut was presented at
 the beginning (BEG) to habituate the bird to the experimental system, at
 the middle (MID) or at the end (END) to ensure that the bird was still
 hungry. * **palatability_clean.csv**: contains the data obtained from
 cleaning the previous dataset (palatability_adults_boxtreemoth.csv), i.e.
 removing manually the individuals for which no MID or END peanut was
 available. It includes only the columns IDBird, Prey, Order, EatTime. *
 **palatability_caterpillars.csv**: contains the data for the palatability
 experiments ran using box tree moth caterpillars. * IDBird: unique
 identification number given to each bird tested in the experiment * Day:
 day when the experiment was performed in the format dd/mm/yy * StartTime:
 time of the day when the experiment began in the format hh:mm * EndTime:
 time of the day when the experiment ended in the format hh:mm * Duration:
 duration of the experiments in minutes (min) * FoodDeprived: interval in
 which the bird was food deprived in minutes (min) * Prey: prey type (P =
 peanut, B = white moth, N = melanic moth) * Peanut_Order: categorical,
 indicates whether the peanut was presented at the beginning (BEG) to
 habituate the bird to the experimental system, at the middle (MID) or at
 the end (END) to ensure that the bird was still hungry. * Order: prey
 order according to how they were given to the bird * PerchTime: time spent
 before coming onto the perch of the experimental cage, hence before seeing
 the prey presented, in seconds (s) * EatTime: time spent on the perch,
 before catching the prey in seconds (s) * Behavior: categorical, indicates
 if the prey was eaten or refused or any intermediate situation (EAT = prey
 was eaten, REF = prey was refused, CATCH = prey was catched but not eaten,
 HALF = prey was partially eaten) #### **data/spectra** * **box_tree/** -
 contains the files with measurements for box tree leaves. Each measurement
 has three files (.ttt, .TCM, .TRM) that need to be stored together. Each
 triplet corresponds to a specific leaf and a specific anatomical part.
 Please, see the relevant R markdown script for a detailed description. The
 files are in ttt format and can be read with *pavo2* package using the
 provided script. The files dark0.dat and ref0.dat are not necessary for
 the analysis, but may be used to know what were the spectral data for the
 reference used for white and dark. * camouflage_net/ - contains the files
 with measurements for the background used in the detection experiment.
 Each file corresponds to a different part of the background. Please, see
 the relevant R markdown script for a detailed description. The files are
 in txt format and can be read with *pavo2* package using the provided
 script. * moths/ - contains files with measurements for the adult moths
 mesured. Each measurement has four files (.dx, .ttt, .TCM, .TRM) that need
 to be stored together. Each group corresponds to a different individual or
 a different portion of the wing. Please, see the R markdown script for a
 detailed description or to the file mesures_spectro_adults.csv. The files
 can be read with *pavo2* package using the provided script. The files
 dark0.dat and ref0.dat are not necessary for the analysis, but may be used
 to know what were the spectral data for the reference used for white and
 dark. ## Code/Software The code is given in R markdown files. The file
 paths are already set to link directly to the relevant files. *
 Detection.Rmd: this script has to be used for analyzing the predation
 experiment, but don't contain the permutation analysis. *
 Permutaion_analysis.Rmd: this script contains the code to run permutation
 analysis used to analyse the data from the predation experiment. *
 Palatability.Rmd: this script has to be used to analyze the data from the
 palatibility experiments on adults and caterpillars. * Spectra.Rmd: this
 script has to be used to analyze the spectra. * Vision_model.Rmd: this
 script has to be used to perform vision modeling