Johanna Mappes is an evolutionary ecologist and her research focuses on predator-prey interactions, aposematic signals and mimicry in chemically defended prey and the evolution of signal polymorphism. Her main study species is the polymorphic, aposematic wood tiger moth (Arctia plantaginis) and their bird predators. Her lab consists of researchers from the fields of molecular biology, sensory ecology, chemical ecology, behavioral ecology and evolutionary ecology. In 2003 The Academy of Finland awarded Mappes the 'Young Dynamic Researcher Award' for her research merits in developing the ‘novel world method’ to study the evolution of aposematism.  She was elected as a Research Professor at the Academy of Finland from 2009-2013, and again from 2019-2023. Mappes served as a Professor of Evolutionary Ecology at the University of Jyväskylä from 2008-2019, where she headed the Centre of Excellence in Biological Interactions for the Academy of Finland from 2012-2018. In 2017 she was elected member of the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters and in 2018 she became an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS). As of 2020, she is a Professor of Ecology at the University of Helsinki, Research Professor at the Academy of Finland.

Ecology and evolution of colours: Predators, conspecific and other drivers of colour polymorphism

Ever since Darwin and Wallace, animal colours have been at the core interest of naturalists because coloration is involved in survival and reproduction of individuals. Coloration is easy to observe and accessible for experimental manipulation. Same time coloration of animals created evolutionary paradoxes for evolutionary biologists, that are still partially unresolved. In my research, I use colourful and distasteful wood tiger moths (Arctia plantaginis) and their bird predators to understand the interplay between phenotypic and genotypic variation on individual fitness. This moth species has many colour morphs (= polymorphism), which is puzzling because predators are expected to learn to avoid the most effective and common signal and thus wipe out other colour variants from the prey population, yet polymorphism is common among aposematic animals. I will show some recent developments to determine genetic basis of colour polymorphism and results of experiments that test ecological conditions that may drive and maintain phenotypic diversity in warning signals and mimicry.  

Keywords: Warning colours, chemical defence, predation, balancing selection