Toxin structure shapes palatability in a chemically defended butterfly - Data
Year: 2026
Type: dataset
Abstract: Data Availability Toxin structure shapes palatability in a chemically defended butterflyErik Todd, Aaron Denton, Dheeraj Halali, Glennis Julian, Adria LeBouef, Chris D. Jiggins and Erika C. Pinheiro de Castro This repository contains csv files of digitally tracked trials, larval weight records and raw data collected from palatability assays using mantids. Contents LiveAnt/: Tracked CSVs for the live-larvae ant assay ExtractAnt/: Tracked CSVs for the extract-painting ant assay mantis_data.csv: trial-level data for the mantid assay LiveAnt_weights.csv, ExtractAnt_weights.csv: larval weight lookup tables, source data joined into the processed CSVs above CSV columns (mantis_data) Column Description Testing_day Date of trial Test_code Unique trial identifier Larval_weight Weight of larva used in trial (g) Type Larval group (A -> H. sara with cyclopentenyl CG, B -> H. sara with aliphatic CG, C -> wax moth controls, D -> B. anynana) Rejection Whether mantids discarded larvae after starting consumption Mantis Which of the 20 mantids were used in a given trial Face_Wiping_Presence Binary record of whether face wiping (response to aversive food) occurred CSV columns (LiveAnt_weights, ExtractAnt_weights) Column Description Test The test number Date: The date of the trial Larval_weight The weight of the larvae used in a trial (in grams) Test_code The unique trial code of each dish Larval type Larval group (A -> H. sara with cyclopentenyl CG, B -> H. sara with aliphatic CG, C -> wax moth controls) Ant colony used The unique identification code of the ant colony used in a given trial Processed CSV columns (LiveAnt/, ExtractAnt/) Column Description frame Frame number within the trial (25 fps) id1_x, id1_y Position of tracked individual 1 (pixel coordinates) id2_x, id2_y Position of tracked individual 2 (pixel coordinates) distance Euclidean distance between id1 and id2 in that frame Interaction 1 if the two contours (ant and larva) overlap signalling an interaction, 0 otherwise larval_weight Larval weight for the dish (g), constant across all frames of a trial Individuals are labelled id1/id2 rather than by role (ant/larva) because identity cannot be reliably distinguished across merge events in the tracking pipeline (see Known limitations, below). This does not affect any reported result, since the response variable used throughout (total interaction time) depends only on contour-merge events, not on which specific individual is which. Filename convention Files are named <Group><Replicate>_dish<N>_processed.csv, where Group is Auriculata (cyclopentenyl CG), Biflora (aliphatic CG), or Control, and dish<N> identifies one of several simultaneously filmed dishes within a single video. Known limitations Individual identity across merge events. When the contours of the two tracked individuals overlap in a frame (an interaction event), the tracking pipeline cannot reliably distinguish which individual is which once the contours separate again. This does not affect total interaction time, the only response variable derived from this data, but the data should not be used to reconstruct per-individual trajectories or identity-specific behaviour without further validation. Excluded trial: Control1_dish8 (Experiment 2, live-larvae ant assay). This trial failed tracking completely due to shadow artefacts causing systematic contour-detection deviations. No processed CSV was ever produced for this trial, and it is not present in this dataset. Its absence is already reflected in the reported sample size for this experiment. Tracking code Video tracking used a modified version of Tracktor (Sridhar, Roche & Gingins, 2019, Methods in Ecology and Evolution, https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.13166), archived at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22641973 Statistics code The R code used to generate the statistics from the data in this repository can be found at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22812978.
Authors: Todd, Erik, Denton, Aaron
Institution: University of Cambridge
Language: English
Subfield: Insect Science
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7213525293