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46 results for “butterfly ecology”

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dryad32/100

Data from: Balancing ecological costs and benefits of fire for population viability of disturbance-dependent butterflies

Disturbance is a fundamental ecological process and driver of population dynamics. Ecologists seek to understand the effects of disturbance on ecological systems and to use disturbance to modify habitats degraded by anthropogenic change. Demographic responses by plants to disturbance are often well described, but demographic responses by animals are less understood. This limits development of applied strategies that leverage disturbance to augment animal populations. We estimated demographic and behavioural responses of an endangered butterfly, Fender's blue, Plebejus icarioides fenderi, to experimental burning in Oregon, USA. We monitored butterfly vital rates for four years post-fire. Prescribed fire killed Fender's blue larvae. However, fecundity was higher relative to reference/unburned areas for two years after the burn and overwinter larval survivorship was higher for a year after the burn. Fire treatments did not influence adult movement behaviour. We used matrix models to project butterfly population dynamics in fire-driven successional landscapes. We compared optimal burn strategies given targeted burns, such as prescribed fire, to undirected burns, such as wildfires. Disturbance enhances population growth rate under both strategies, and the optimal proportion of landscape burned is similar in both cases. However, targeted burning leads to substantially higher population growth rates. Synthesis and applications. Demographic models allow planning of long-term and large-scale disturbance by balancing initial costs of disturbance with subsequent benefits. We use matrix models to project population growth in fire-driven successional landscapes and contrast prescribed burns with undirected burns (wildfires). We also use these models to evaluate the influence of local vs. non-local dispersal. Because random (non-local) dispersal allows individuals to disperse into areas that were just burned, non-local dispersal always increases population growth rates in this system. This contrasts with source-sink dynamics in stationary environments, in which local dispersal leads to higher population growth rates. Our matrix modelling approach has broad application to other disturbance-dependent taxa surviving in anthropogenically modified landscapes, and could be more widely applied to animal populations.

opencc-zeroDec 2016View details →

dryad32/100

Data from: The influence of ecological and life history factors on ectothermic temperature-size responses: analysis of three Lycaenidae butterflies (Lepidoptera)

Body size has been shown to decrease with increasing temperature in many species, prompting the suggestion that it is a universal ecological response. However, species with complex life cycles, such as holometabolous insects, may have correspondingly complicated temperature-size responses. Recent research suggests that life history and ecological traits may be important for determining the direction and strength of temperature-size responses. Yet, these factors are rarely included in analyses. Here, we aim to determine if the size of the bivoltine butterfly, Polyommatus bellargus, and the univoltine butterflies, Plebejus argus and Polyommatus coridon, change in response to temperature and whether these responses differ between the sexes, and for P. bellargus, between generations. Forewing length was measured using digital specimens from the Natural History Museum, London (NHM), from one locality in the UK per species. The data were initially compared to annual and seasonal temperature values, without consideration of life history factors. Sex and generation of the individuals and mean monthly temperatures, which cover the growing period for each species, were then included in analyses. When compared to annual or seasonal temperatures only, size was not related to temperature for P. bellargus and P. argus, but there was a negative relationship between size and temperature for P. coridon. When sex, generation and monthly temperatures were included, male adult size decreased as temperature increased in the early larval stages, and increased as temperature increased during the late larval stages. Results were similar but less consistent for females, while second generation P. bellargus showed no temperature-size response. In P. coridon, size decreased as temperature increased during the pupal stage. These results highlight the importance of including life history factors, sex and monthly temperature data when studying temperature-size responses for species with complex life cycles.

opencc-zeroAug 2019View details →

dryad32/100

Genomics confirms surprising ecological divergence and isolation in an endangered butterfly

Phylogeographic patterns in phytophagous organisms are often contextualized in light of geographic isolation and ecological (host, habitat) specialization. However, assessing the relative impact of these phenomena is not straightforward, even in areas where phylogeography is well-studied, such as the California Floristic Province. Here, we use genome-wide markers to elucidate population genomic and phylgeographic patterns for a group of monophytophagous butterflies in southern California. This group is of high conservation interest because it includes the El Segundo blue, Euphilotes battoides allyni, one of the first insects listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, and a newly discovered population putatively assigned to E. b. allyni. Despite using the same unique host and coastal habitat, our results indicate that the newly discovered populations are not E. b. allyni and are more closely related to geographically proximate populations of the E. battoides group using a different habitat host. Aside from E. b. allyni and the newly discovered populations, the rest of the group shows only fine-scale structure and apparently maintains genetic connectivity throughout southern California, across a vast range of habitats and climates, and on multiple hosts. Thus, habitat and host specialization did not elicit genetic isolation in neighboring populations suggesting that: 1) other phenomena are needed to explain the remarkable and idiosyncratic divergence of these highly restricted, proximate, taxa, and 2) fine-scale genomic markers suggest broader implications for understanding the mechanisms of speciation and reinvestigation of phylogeographic patterns in regions like the California Floristic Province.

opencc-zeroFeb 2020View details →

zenodo32/100

Fig. 2 in Climatic Niche Conservatism and Ecological Diversification in the Holarctic Cold-Dwelling Butterfly Genus Erebia

Fig. 2. Illustrative figures of European and Asian mountains (panels A, B) and ancestral reconstruction of climatic traits (panels C–G) for species-specific average values of WorldClim variables.The ancestral reconstructions are based on OU model of evolution in the butterfly genus Erebia.

opennotspecifiedJan 2023View details →

zenodo32/100

Fig. 3 in Climatic Niche Conservatism and Ecological Diversification in the Holarctic Cold-Dwelling Butterfly Genus Erebia

Fig. 3. The relationships between climatic and elevation niche widths and niche position along the gradient of conditions occupied by the butterfly genus Erebia. The points correspond to the niche width (y-axis) and average value of a climate variable or elevation for individual species (x-axis).The best fit of generalized additive models (GAM) is shown by lines (separately for species of the European and the Asian clade). Statistical significance of the model fit is also shown. edf denotes the estimated degrees of freedom, which indicates the complexity of the nonlinear relationship (edf = 1 corresponds to a linear relationship).

opennotspecifiedJan 2023View details →

zenodo32/100

Fig. 1 in Climatic Niche Conservatism and Ecological Diversification in the Holarctic Cold-Dwelling Butterfly Genus Erebia

Fig. 1. Phylogenetic relationships and divergence time estimates for the butterfly genus Erebia. The European clade diversified mainly in Europe, the Asian clade in Asia, although the geographic distribution of several species is not restricted to a single region (see Supp Fig. 3 [online only]). The full biogeographic reconstruction is shown in the Supp Figs. 3–5 (online only). Climatic PCA displays the distribution-based climatic data for all species of the European and the Asian clades.The polygons show the full extent of the conditions occupied by each clade (dotted lines) and the core 50% of the climatic niche (solid lines). The inset shows the correlation of individual bioclimatic variables with the first and second PCA axes.The bioclimatic variables (bio1, bio4, bio12, and bio15) displayed significant phylogenetic signal (Table 3).The European clade inhabits warmer, more humid, and less seasonal climate compared to the Asian clade.

opennotspecifiedJan 2023View details →

dryad32/100

How long is 3 kilometres for a butterfly? Ecological constraints and functional traits explain high mitochondrial genetic diversity between Sicily and the Italian Peninsula

1. Populations inhabiting Mediterranean islands often show contrasting genetic lineages, even on islands that were connected to the mainland during glacial maxima. This pattern is generated by forces acting in historical and contemporary times. Understanding these phenomena requires comparative studies relating genetic structure, functional traits and dispersal constraints. 2. Using as a model the butterfly species living across the Messina strait separating Sicily from the Italian Peninsula (3 km wide), we aimed to unravel the mechanisms limiting the dispersal of matrilines across a narrow sea strait and producing genetic differentiation. 3. We analysed the mitochondrial COI gene of 84 butterfly species out of 90 documented in Sicily and compared them with populations from the neighbouring southern Italian Peninsula (1398 sequences) and from the entire Palearctic region (8093 sequences). For each species, we regressed 13 functional traits and two ecological constraints to dispersal (winds experienced at the strait and climatic suitability) against genetic differentiation between Sicily and Italian Peninsula to understand the factors limiting dispersal. 4. More than a third of the species showed different haplogroups across the strait and most of them also represented endemic haplogroups for this island. One fifth of Sicilian populations (and 32.3% of endemic lineages) had their closest relatives in distant areas, instead of the neighbouring Italian Peninsula, which suggests high relictuality. Haplotype diversity was significantly explained by length of the flight period, an intrinsic phenology trait, while genetic differentiation was explained by both intrinsic traits (wingspan and degree of generalism) and contemporary local constraints (winds experienced at the strait and climatic suitability). 5. A relatively narrow sea strait can produce considerable differentiation among butterfly matrilines and this phenomenon showed a largely deterministic fingerprint. Because of unfavourable winds, populations of the less dispersive Sicilian butterflies tended to differentiate into endemic variants or to maintain relict populations. Understanding these phenomena required the integration of DNA sequences, species traits and physical constraints for a large taxon at continental scale. Future studies may reveal if the patterns here shown for mitochondrial DNA are also reflected in the nuclear genome or, alternatively, are the product of limited female dispersal.

opencc-zeroFeb 2020View details →

dryad32/100

Data from: Rapid diversification associated with ecological specialization in Neotropical Adelpha butterflies

Rapid diversification is often associated with morphological or ecological adaptations that allow organisms to radiate into novel niches. Neotropical Adelpha butterflies, which comprise over 200 species and subspecies, are characterized by extraordinary breadth in host plant use and wing colour patterns compared to their closest relatives. To examine the relationship between phenotypic and species diversification, we reconstructed the phylogenetic history of Adelpha and its temperate sister genus Limenitis using genomewide restriction-site-associated DNA (RAD) sequencing. Despite a declining fraction of shared markers with increasing evolutionary distance, the RAD-Seq data consistently generated well-supported trees using a variety of phylogenetic methods. These well-resolved phylogenies allow the identification of an ecologically important relationship with a toxic host plant family, as well as the confirmation of widespread, convergent wing pattern mimicry throughout the genus. Taken together, our results support the hypothesis that evolutionary innovations in both larvae and adults have permitted the colonization of novel host plants and fuelled adaptive diversification within this large butterfly radiation.

opencc-zeroDec 2014View details →

dryad32/100