Université de Fribourg

Positive frequency-dependent selection on warning color in alpine leaf beetles

Borer, Matthias ; Noort, Tom Van ; Rahier, Martine ; Naisbit, Russell E.

In: Evolution, 2010, vol. 64, no. 12, p. 3629–3633

Müller's theory of warning color and mimicry, despite forming a textbook example of frequency-dependent selection, has rarely been demonstrated in the wild. This may be largely due to the practical and statistical difficulties of measuring natural selection on mobile prey species. Here we demonstrate that this selection acts in alpine beetle communities by using tethered beetles exposed to...