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Variation of pyrrolizidine alkaloids in Ithomiinae: A comparative study between species feeding on Apocynaceae and Solanaceae

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Summary

The primitive, Apocynaceae-feeding Ithomiine,Tithorea harmonia, incorporates dehydropyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) from its larval foodplant (Prestonia acutifolia), rarely visiting PA sources pharmacophagously in the adult; females show higher concentrations of PAs than males, with similar variance. The close relativeAeria olena (feeding onP. coalita, without PAs) shows similar PA concentrations in both sexes and greater variation in males, like more advanced Solanaceae-feeding Ithomiine such asMechanitis polymnia, which likeA. olena obtain PAs by pharmacophagy in the adult (mainly males). This difference is due to the dynamics of PA incorporation in these species. Little variation in PA content was found among allopatric populations of the same species, but variation in available PA sources in different months was correlated with different average storage levels in the butterflies.

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  1. Laboratório de Ecologia Química, Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biologia, UNICAMP, CP 6109, 13081, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil

    José Roberto Trigo & Keith S. Brown Jr.

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  1. José Roberto Trigo
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  2. Keith S. Brown Jr.
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Trigo, J.R., Brown, K.S. Variation of pyrrolizidine alkaloids in Ithomiinae: A comparative study between species feeding on Apocynaceae and Solanaceae. Chemoecology 1, 22–29 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01240582

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