Strong natural selection in a warning color hybrid zone

Frequency-dependent selection on warning color can maintain narrow hybrid zones between unpalatable prey taxa. To measure such selection, we transferred marked Heliconius erato (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) in both directions across a 10-km-wide hybrid zone between Peruvian races differing in color pattern. These experimental H. erato were released at four sites, along with control H. erato of the phenotype native to each site. Survival of experimental butterflies was significantly lower than that of controls at two sites and overall. Most selection, measured as differences in survival, occurred soon after release. Selection against foreign morphs was 52% (confidence limits: 25-71%) and was probably due to bird attacks on unusual warning-color morphs (more than 10% of the recaptures had beak marks). Since only three major loci determine the color-pattern differences, this suggests an average selection coefficient of 0.17 per locus, sufficient to maintain the narrow clines in H. erato.