Heliconiini butterflies can learn time-dependent reward associations.

Area of Science:

• Behavioral Ecology
• Animal Cognition
• Entomology

Background:

• Pollinators rely on predictable floral resource availability, making time-dependent learning potentially beneficial.
• While time-dependent learning is known in some species, its prevalence in butterflies, particularly *Heliconius*, is under-explored.
• *Heliconius* butterflies exhibit unique pollen-feeding and trap-line foraging behaviors, suggesting potential for temporal learning.

Purpose of the Study:

• To experimentally investigate time-dependent foraging preferences in *Heliconius hecale* butterflies.
• To determine if learned color preferences shift based on the time of day.
• To assess the prevalence of this ability in related butterfly genera.

Main Methods:

• Experimental presentation of colored artificial flowers to *Heliconius hecale* at different times.
• Recording butterfly visitation and preference data across distinct time periods.
• Comparative testing in a related genus of non-pollen feeding butterflies.

Main Results:

• *Heliconius hecale* demonstrated the ability to learn opposing color preferences at different times of day.
• Preference shifts were robust to the order of presentation, indicating true time-of-day learning.
• The same time-learning ability was observed in a related genus not specializing in pollen feeding.

Conclusions:

• Time-dependent foraging preference learning is present in *Heliconius hecale*, supporting hypotheses about exploiting temporal resource predictability.
• This ability likely predates the evolution of pollen feeding in *Heliconius*.
• Time learning may be a common trait among butterflies, even those with less specialized diets.