Perceptual maps of Heliconiini butterflies: images, 3D spaces, 2D maps, and mimicry ring listings

Summary

This repository contains images, 3D animated spaces, 2D perceptual maps with GMM, and mimicry ring lists for heliconiine butterflies complementing the analyses presented in this research paper: "Doré et al., 2025 - Perceptual maps reveal rampant convergence in butterfly wing patterns across the Neotropics. in prep.".

Abstract

    In 1879, Fritz Müller formulated the first mathematical evolutionary model to explain mutualistic mimicry between coexisting defended prey. Yet, the degree to which local mimicry drives the structure of prey aposematic signals at continental scale remains unclear, because the perception of pattern similarity has never been assessed at large spatial scale. Here, we implement a Citizen Science survey to quantify and analyze the structure of perceived variation in the wing patterns of heliconiine butterflies (Nymphalidae: Heliconiini) throughout the entire Neotropics. Despite a continuum of perceived wing patterns at the continental scale, we show that the convergence of sympatric species into discrete mimicry rings is ubiquitous among communities. These results expand Müller’s historical predictions by supporting the rampant convergence of prey signals across an entire continent.  

Contents

This repository contains three folders:

• "3D_maps" contains the animated 3D perceptual spaces of heliconiine wing patterns for the Citizen Science dataset (N = 432) and the Local reference for the five local communities highlighted in the article.
• "Clustering" contains the 2D perceptual maps and associated lists of mimicry rings built for each of the five local communities, for different level of clustering from GMM (K from 5 to 10).
• "Images" contains the 432 images of dorsal wing patterns of heliconiine butterflies used in the online survey (https://memometic.cleverapps.io/) designed for this study.

How to cite

Please cite this research article as:

Doré, M., Pérochon, E., Aubier, T.G., Le Poul, Y., Joron, M., Elias, M., 2025. Perceptual maps reveal rampant convergence in butterfly wing patterns across the Neotropics. in prep. https://doi.org/TBA

Associated ressources

The source codes for the analyses carried out in the study are available on GitHub.
 
The occurrences data and distribution maps used in this study are publicly available from Zenodo: Occurrences data at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10906853; Distribution maps at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10903661.

The online Citizen Science survey on the perception of mimicry in wing color patterns of heliconiine butterflies is temporary available at https://memometic.cleverapps.io/.
Source code for the online Citizen Science survey are accessible on GitHub.