Readme for raw data associated with the article: Which traits do observers use to distinguish Batesian mimics from their models?  Taylor CH, Warrin J, Gilbert F and Reader T (2016). Behavioral Ecology.

Please see the paper in Behavioral Ecology for methodological details. If you have further questions, please email the corresponding author (Dr Christopher Taylor): c.taylor [at] nottingham [dot] ac [dot] uk


The archived data for this study is contained in three .csv files:


1. Quiz_responses_expt_1.csv

This file contains details of each online response that was used in the analysis for Experiment 1. It consists of 12020 rows (plus column headers) and 8 columns (no row names). Each row gives the data for a single response event i.e. a single "Avoid" or "Attack" decision by a participant. Each participant therefore contributes 20 rows to the data table, corresponding to the 20 questions they faced. 

Details are given in 8 columns as follows:

  A - Respondant_ID      - A unique reference number given to each respondant. 
  B - Age                - The age (in years) given by the respondant.
  C - Sex                - The sex (F = female, M = male) given by the respondant.
  D - Image_type         - The type of image displayed for that question (Control, Shape, Pattern etc.). See paper for details.
  E - Question_number    - A number from 1-20 indicating the point in the sequence at which that question was asked.
  F - Specimen_ID        - A reference number given to the individual insect specimen randomly selected for that question. More details about the specimens in question can be found in the file "Image_details.csv" (see below).
  G - Model_or_Mimic     - Indicates whether the specimen in question is a "Model" (Hymenoptera) or "Mimic" (Diptera).
  H - Choose_to_attack   - The response chosen by the respondant (FALSE = avoid, TRUE = attack).


2. Quiz_responses_expt_2.csv

This file contains details of each online response that was used in the analysis for Experiment 2. It consists of 2280 rows (plus column headers) and 8 columns (no row names). The data follow the same format as Experiment 1 (see above).


3. Image_details.csv

This file contains details for each of the insect specimens from which the images used in the two experiments were drawn. It consists of 104 rows (plus column headers) and 116 columns (no row names). Each row gives the data for a single specimen. 

Details are given in 116 columns as follows:

  A - Specimen_ID - A unique reference number given to each specimen. This can be used to cross-reference with the two "Quiz_response" files.
  B - Genus          - The first part of the species' latin binomial.
  C - Species        - The second part of the species' latin binomial.
  D - Sex            - The sex of the individual photographed.
  E - Size           - Body length of the specimen (in units of 0.1 mm).
  F - Model_or_Mimic - Indicates whether the specimen in question is a "Model" (Hymenoptera) or "Mimic" (Diptera).
  G - R_black        - The red component of the mean RGB value of the black portion of the abdominal pattern.
  H - G_black        - The green component of the above RGB value
  I - B_black        - The blue component of the above RGB value
  J - R_yellow       - The red component of the mean RGB value of the yellow portion of the abdominal pattern. 
  K - G_yellow       - The green component of the above RGB value
  L - B_yellow       - The blue component of the above RGB value
  M - D_Ci1          - The dissimilarity between abdominal patterns between the row's specimen and the specimen given in the column header (here, Ci1).
  N onwards          - As for column M, for the remaining dissimilarity values.

Dissimilarity values are calculated by the "distance transform" method (Taylor CH, Gilbert F and Reader T 2013. Distance transform: a tool for the study of animal colour patterns. Methods Ecol. Evol. 4:771-781)