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2,390 results for “butterflies”
Data from: No evidence that gut microbiota impose a net cost on their butterfly host
Gut microbes are believed to play a critical role in most animal life, yet fitness effects and cost benefit-tradeoffs incurred by the host are poorly understood. Unlike most hosts studied to date, butterflies largely acquire their nutrients from larval feeding, leaving relatively little opportunity for nutritive contributions by the adult's microbiota. This provides an opportunity to measure whether hosting gut microbiota comes at a net nutritional price. Since host and bacteria may compete for sugars, we hypothesized that gut flora would be nutritionally neutral to adult butterflies with plentiful food, but detrimental to semi-starved hosts, especially when at high density. We held field-caught adult Speyeria mormonia under abundant or restricted food conditions. Since antibiotic treatments did not generate consistent variation in their gut microbiota, we leveraged inter-individual variability in bacterial loads and OTU abundances to examine correlations between host fitness and the abdominal microbiota present upon natural death. We detected strikingly few relationships between microbial flora and host fitness. Neither total bacterial load nor the abundances of dominant bacterial taxa were related to butterflies' fecundity, egg mass, or egg chemical content. Increased abundance of a Commensalibacter species did correlate with longer host lifespan, while increased abundance of a Rhodococcus species correlated with shorter lifespan. Contrary to our expectations, these relationships were unchanged by food availability to the host and were unrelated to reproductive output. Our results suggest the butterfly microbiota comprise parasitic, commensal, and beneficial taxa that together do not impose a net reproductive cost, even under caloric stress.
Phenological responses to climate warming in temperate moths and butterflies: species traits predict future changes in voltinism
Changes in the number of generations per year (voltinism) have been among the most common phenological responses to climate warming in insects inhabiting seasonal environments. Nevertheless, numerous species have maintained univoltine (one generation per year) phenology with increasing temperatures, indicating the involvement of phylogenetic, ecological or some other constraints on phenological change. I examined geographic variation in voltinism in moths and butterflies of Northern Europe to identify species traits that might predispose species to univoltine/multivoltine phenology. I focused on species with a wide latitudinal distribution range (15 degrees as a minimum) which makes it unlikely that constraints imposed by season length could preclude multivoltinism across their distribution. Almost half of the 731 moth and butterfly species considered appear to have a single generation throughout their entire European range. A univoltine life-cycle across a wide latitudinal gradient suggests the presence of some constraint that makes additional generations either impossible or at least strongly disadvantageous, which will unlikely change with future climate warming. The scattered distribution of univoltine and multivoltine species across the lepidopteran phylogeny indicates that phylogenetic constraints are not strongly limiting changes in voltinism, and the trait is open to ecologically-driven adaptive evolution. My data show that species with one generation per year are generally larger than multivoltine species, but size forms no absolute constraint to having multiple generations per year. Obligately univoltine species dominate among egg and adult overwinterers (life-histories typical of so-called spring-feeders), whereas species with capacity for multiple generations prevail among pupal overwinterers. Multivoltinism is also infrequent among species feeding on grasses, particularly in endophagous grass-feeders. Larval diet breadth has no discernible effect on voltinism. Given the diverse ecological consequences of voltinism and its changes, accounting for the species' capacity for multivoltinism may be a key to address future challenges in biodiversity conservation and pest management.
Data from: Vertical differentiation in tropical forest butterflies: a novel mechanism generating insect diversity?
Many tropical fruit-feeding nymphalid butterflies are associated with either the forest canopy or the understory, however, the exceptions offer insights into the origins of tropical diversity. As it occurs in both habitats of tropical forests in Ecuador and Peru, Archaeoprepona demophon is one such exception. We compared patterns of occurrence of A. demophon in the canopy and understory and population genomic variation for evidence of ecological and genetic differentiation between habitats. We found that butterfly occurrences in the canopy were largely uncorrelated with occurrences in the understory at both localities, indicating independent demographic patterns in the two habitats. We also documented modest, significant genome-level differentiation at both localities. Genetic differentiation between habitat types (approximately 20m in elevation) were comparable to levels of differentiation between sampling locations (approximately 1500km). We conclude that canopy and understory populations of A. demophon represent incipient independent evolutionary units. These findings support the hypothesis that divergence between canopy and understory-associated populations might be a mechanism generating insect diversity in the tropics.
Electrical box in a wall with butterfly
Electrical wall box with tiny butterfly - Coffret EDF avec un petit papillon. Photogrammetry scan (70x24mp) 1x4k texture. Source: Objaverse 1.0 / Sketchfab
Butterfly
Design: Joanna Ambroziak-Hanasiewicz <br> Location: Gallery of Silesian Sculpture, Katowice, Poland <br> Disclosure: 1970s<br> <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/149685412@N06/albums/72157675202326258" title="Motyl"></a><br> GPS: 50.28976, 18.98692<br> Localisation - https://goo.gl/maps/ovXDBJeP6qu<br> Source: Objaverse 1.0 / Sketchfab
Butterflies show different functional and species diversity in relation to vegetation structure and land-use
<p>Using these data we investigated the relation between vegetation structure, land use and the diversity of species and traits in butterflies for the Netherlands.</p> <p>The research paper, now accepted for publication but not yet online, in the journal "Global Ecology and Biogeography", has the title "Butterflies show different functional and species diversity in relation to vegetation structure and land-use".</p> <p>Please see the methods used to create the dataset in the above mentioned manuscript.</p> <p>A description of the raster layers used in the above mentioned manuscript and available here has been uploaded together with the raster layers.</p>
Supplementary information associated with a "Whole-Organism Integrated DNA Methylation and Transcriptomics Analysis of Butterfly Metamorphosis".
<p>Supplementary information, annotation and code related to the manuscript studying <em>Bicyclus anynana</em> development entitled "Whole-Organism Integrated DNA Methylation and Transcriptomics Analysis of Butterfly Metamorphosis".</p>
Multitrophic metacommunity dataset, with metapopulation level butterfly data, in addition to predation pressure and floral abundance
<p>This dataset includes metapopulation level butterfly data within a butterfly metacommunity sampled across 15 sites at Burnt Lands Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada, during the summer of 2019. It includes floral abundance at each site for each sampling round. It also includes information on the number of predator attacks on experimental clay butterfly models at each site. It contains data on site size and connectivity for the 15 sites, as well as the length of butterfly survey transects sampled in each site.</p>
[VERSION 2] Data set and analytic codes supporting "How do management decisions impact butterfly assemblages in smallholding oil palm plantations in Peninsular Malaysia?"
<p>This is <strong>VERSION 2</strong> of data set and analytic codes (with a meta data [see the meta data from VERSION 1]) supporting "How do management decisions impact butterfly assemblages in smallholding oil palm plantations in Peninsular Malaysia?". We investigated the impacts of replanting and alternative replanting decisions (replanting with monoculture versus polyculture oil palm plantations) on within-plantation environmental conditions and butterfly assemblages (diversity, density, and composition). We also assessed the effects of habitat structure and complexity within plantations on butterfly assemblages. Apart from "BantingButterflies_ButterflyData", other data are the same as in VERSION 1.</p><p><strong>## List of changes:</strong></p><p># 1. <i>Tirumala septentrionis </i>was not included in the analyses because it should have been <i>Ideopsis vulgaris</i> (had been corrected),</p><p># 2. PC5 and PC6 (from PCA) were considered as predictors for the GLMs,</p><p># 3. The Mantel test was added.</p><p><strong>## Other notes:</strong></p><p># 1. Older version of ggiNEXT could work with facet.var = "site", now it needs to be "Assemblage"</p><p># 2. Older version of ggiNEXT could work with facet.var = "order", now it needs to be "Order.q"</p><p># 3. "set.seed(42)" function was used before running "iNEXT", ANOSIM, and the Mantel test to get reproducible outputs (exactly the same outputs every time each function is run).</p><p><strong>Funding and research permission:</strong> Jardine Foundation, the Cambridge Trust, and Tim Whitmore Fund provided funding for MFH, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) funded JS (USN: 304338625), and BBSRC (BB/T012366/1) provided funding for the establishment of the plots and surveys of environmental parameters. Research permission was provided by the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) of Malaysia's Prime Minister's Department for MFH (Ref: EPU 40/200/19/3727) and JS (Ref: MEA 40/200/19/3705).</p>
Opsin data from: Multiple axes of visual system diversity in Ithomiini, an ecologically diverse tribe of mimetic butterflies
<p><span>The striking structural variation seen in arthropod visual systems can be explained by the overall quantity and spatio-temporal structure of light within habitats coupled with developmental and physiological constraints. However, little is currently known about how fine-scale variation in visual structures arise across shorter evolutionary and ecological scales. In this study, we characterise patterns of interspecific (between species), intraspecific (between sexes) and intraindividual (between eye regions) variation in the visual system of four ithomiine butterfly species. These species are part of a diverse 26-Myr-old Neotropical radiation where changes in mimetic colouration are associated with fine-scale shifts in ecology, such as microhabitat preference. By using a combination of selection analyses on visual opsin sequences, in-vivo ophthalmoscopy, micro-computed tomography (micro-CT), immunohistochemistry, confocal microscopy, and neural tracing, we quantify and describe physiological, anatomical, and molecular traits involved in visual processing. Using these data, we provide evidence of substantial variation within the visual systems of Ithomiini, including: i) relaxed selection on visual opsins, perhaps mediated by habitat preference, ii) interspecific shifts in visual system physiology and anatomy, and iii) extensive sexual dimorphism, including the complete absence of a butterfly-specific optic neuropil in the males of some species. We conclude that considerable visual system variation can exist within diverse insect radiations, hinting at the evolutionary lability of these systems to rapidly develop specialisations to distinct visual ecologies, with selection acting at both the perceptual, processing, and molecular level.</span></p>
Quantifying visual acuity in Heliconius butterflies
<p><em>Heliconius</em> butterflies are well-known for their colourful wing patterns, which advertise distastefulness to potential predators and are used during mate choice. However, the relative importance of different aspects of these signals will depend on the visual abilities of <em>Heliconius</em> and their predators. Previous studies have investigated colour sensitivity and neural anatomy, but visual acuity (the ability to perceive detail) has not been studied in these butterflies. Here, we provide the first estimate of visual acuity in Heliconius: from a behavioural optomotor assay, we found that mean visual acuity = 0.49 cycles-per-degree (cpd), with higher acuity in males than females. We also examined eye morphology and report more ommatidia in male eyes. Finally, we estimated how visual acuity affects <em>Heliconius</em> visual perception compared to a potential avian predator. Whereas the bird predator maintained high resolving power, <em>Heliconius</em> lost the ability to resolve detail at greater distances, though colours may remain salient. These results will inform future studies of <em>Heliconius</em> wing pattern evolution, as well as other aspects in these highly visual butterflies, which have emerged as an important system in studies of adaptation and speciation.</p>
Figure 4 in Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea) of the urban park of Instituto Butantan, São Paulo, Southeastern Brazil
Figure 4. Seasonal variation in the number of species per family in each month in the butterfly community of Instituto Butantan. Regions with colored symbols represent wet (blue cloud) and dry (brown leaf) season.
Figure 3 in Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea) of the urban park of Instituto Butantan, São Paulo, Southeastern Brazil
Figure 3. Some of the species of butterflies found in the park of Instituto Butantan, São Paulo, Brazil. Hesperiidae: (A) Pythonides lancea, (B) Calpodes esperi, (C) Urbanus belli, (D) Cobalus virbius. Lycaenidae: (E) Elkalyce cogina, (F) Arawacus meliboeus. Riodinidae: (G) Euselasia zara, (H) Chadia cadytis. Nymphalidae:(I) Consul fabius, (J) Eunica margarita, (K) Heliconius sara apseudes, (L) Hypanartia lethe, (M) Carminda paeon, (N) Mechanitis lysimnia, (O) Marpesia petreus, (P) Adelpha zea. Pieridae: (Q) Melete lycimnia paulista, (R) Dismorphia amphione astynome, (S) Phoebis philea. Papilionidae: (T) Parides agavus. Photos: Aline Vieira-Silva, Gustavo M. Accacio and Gabriel Banov.
Figure 2 in Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea) of the urban park of Instituto Butantan, São Paulo, Southeastern Brazil
Figure 2. Species accumulation curve (black) and first order Jackknife estimator curve (gray) for butterfly species recorded in Instituto Butantan, São Paulo, Brazil, from August 2017 to July 2019. The dotted lines represent standard deviations.
Figure 1 in Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea) of the urban park of Instituto Butantan, São Paulo, Southeastern Brazil
Figure 1. Map of the municipality of São Paulo, Brazil (A) showing the expanded center of the city (light gray). Park of Instituto Butantan (B), with the transect used to record the butterfly′s species highlighted in red.
Factors shaping the abundance of two butterflies sharing resources and enemies across a biogeographic region
<p><strong>Aim: </strong>Intra-specific variation in species relative abundance is shaped by a complex interplay of abiotic and biotic factors, making it both necessary and challenging to assess their combined relative importance in explaining variations across space and time. We used two congeneric butterfly species for which extensive count data and a deep understanding of their natural history are available to test three hypotheses explaining intra-specific variation in their abundance: (H1) seasonal dispersal behaviour driven by climate, (H2) resource availability, and (H3) apparent competition mediated via shared parasitoids.</p> <p><strong>Taxon</strong>: <em>Gonepteryx rhamni </em>(Brimstone) and <em>G. cleopatra</em> (Cleopatra).</p> <p><strong>Location</strong>: NE Iberian Peninsula, where both species coexist, and a nearby archipelago (Balearic Islands), where only Cleopatra occurs.</p> <p><strong>Methods</strong>: We analyzed spatial abundance variations for both species in the mainland and island-mainland differences in the abundance of Cleopatra. Abiotic and biotic factors, including temperature, host plant and overwintering habitat availability, larval parasitism and density dependence were tested to explain the observed variations.</p> <p><strong>Results</strong>: H1 can explain variation in butterfly abundance between mainland regions since in warmer summers populations increased in cooler areas but decreased in warmer areas. H2 explains the variation within mainland climate regions with a strong positive relationship between resource availability and abundance but is unlikely to explain the island-mainland variation in the abundance of Cleopatra. H3 could neither explain biogeographical variation in abundance because although richer parasitoid communities were found on the mainland, larval mortality rates were similar or lower on the mainland than in the islands.</p> <p><strong>Main conclusions</strong>: Climate and resource availability jointly account for variation in butterfly abundance across the mainland, but neither these factors nor parasitism can explain island-mailand differences. Both coexisting butterfly species and their larval parasitoids may have undergone evolutionary processes, resulting in spatial segregation that promotes the coexistence of the two butterfly species on the mainland.</p>
Porcelain snuff-box with insects and butterflies
Material: [Porcelain](http://vocab.getty.edu/page/aat/300010662). Accession no: DG 016. Current location: [The Hunt Museum](https://www.huntmuseum.com/), [Limerick](https://www.geonames.org/7778675/limerick-city.html). A circular [snuff-box](http://vocab.getty.edu/page/aat/300196983) of porcelain, painted with insects and butterflies with gold mounts. German, [Dresden](http://www.geonames.org/2935022/dresden.html), [18th Century](http://n2t.net/ark:/99152/p06c6g32vpj). [More](https://www.huntmuseum.com/explore/item/bcd03af7-2195-3045-bdf9-6a9f5a2c1102/?s%3Dsnuff&pos=3). Source: Objaverse 1.0 / Sketchfab
Sex-biased gene content associates with sex chromosome turnover in Danaini butterflies
<p>Sex chromosomes play an outsized role in adaptation and speciation, and thus deserve particular attention in evolutionary genomics. In particular, fusions between sex chromosomes and autosomes can produce neo-sex chromosomes, which offer important insights into the evolutionary dynamics of sex chromosomes. Here we investigate the evolutionary origin of the previously reported <em>Danaus</em> neo-sex chromosome within the tribe Danaini. We assembled and annotated genomes of <em>Tirumala septentrionis</em> (subtribe Danaina), <em>Ideopsis similis</em> (Amaurina), <em>Idea leuconoe</em> (Euploeina), and <em>Lycorea halia</em> (Itunina) and identified their Z-linked scaffolds. We found that the <em>Danaus </em>neo-sex chromosome resulting from the fusion between a Z chromosome and an autosome corresponding to the <em>Melitaea cinxia</em> chromosome (McChr) 21 arose in a common ancestor of Danaina, Amaurina, and Euploina. We also identified two additional fusions as the W chromosome further fused with the synteny block McChr31 in <em>I. similis</em> and independent fusion occurred between the ancestral Z chromosome and McChr12 in <em>L. halia</em>. We further tested a possible role of sexually antagonistic selection in sex chromosome turnover by analyzing the genomic distribution of sex-biased genes in <em>I. leuconoe</em> and <em>L. halia</em>. The autosomes corresponding to McChr21 and McChr31 involved in the fusions are significantly enriched in female- and male-biased genes, respectively, which could have hypothetically facilitated fixation of the neo-sex chromosomes. This suggests a role of sexual antagonism in sex chromosome turnover in Lepidoptera. The neo-Z chromosomes of both <em>I. leuconoe</em> and <em>L. halia</em> appear fully compensated in somatic tissues, but the extent of dosage compensation for the ancestral Z is variable across tissues and species.</p>
Butterfly community composition within a tropical urban landscape is influenced by habitat type and temperature
<p>The specific factors that influence spatial community or population dynamics are often elusive, and even less known is the impact of tropical urban landscapes on diverse species community assemblages. To address this knowledge gap, we used a survey data set with 510 fruit‐feeding butterflies comprising 20 species across two heterogeneous habitats within a city in Nigeria. Next, we constructed generalised linear mixed models to understand the differential responses of the butterfly community to changes in environmental conditions across habitats. Butterfly species community assemblages significantly differed between the two urban habitats, with butterfly species significantly higher in the savannah woodland compared with the gallery forest due to the optimal daily temperatures of the savannah woodland. However, butterfly richness was lower in the gallery forest due to extreme environmental conditions. This study highlights that butterfly community changes in tropical urban landscapes are possibly responding to local microclimates and spatial heterogeneity across habitats. For evidence‐based conservation management of tropical butterfly biodiversity, there would be a need for a long‐term, extensive and systematic insect monitoring programme for butterflies across disturbed and undisturbed fragmented habitats harbouring diverse insect species.</p>
Data from: Temperature seasonality drives taxonomic and functional homogenization of tropical butterflies
<p>To understand the potential impact of climate change on butterfly assemblages across a tropical island, we used thousands of museum records of diurnal Lepidoptera to model current (1970–2000) and forecast future (2061–2080) species distributions and combined these to test for taxonomic and functional homogenization. We then quantified climatic-mediated effects on current and forecasted taxonomic and functional composition and, specifically, whether temperature was a primary driver, as predicted by the temperature-size rule and the thermal melanism hypotheses. Finally, we measured wing traits important in thermoregulation (size and color) and determined trait-mediated changes in forecasted species distributions over time. Our models projected an increase in taxonomic and functional richness over time, and a decrease in taxonomic and functional turnover – a signature of biotic homogenization. Under future climate scenarios, models projected a decrease in wing length and an increase in wing brightness at higher elevations. One variable, temperature seasonality, was the strongest predicted driver of both the current spatial distribution and the projected percent change over time for not only wing traits, but also taxonomic and functional richness and turnover. This dataset contains wing trait data for 62 butterfly species of Puerto Rico, included in the study, measured on digitized museum specimens. Generally, 10 individuals of each species were measured, allowing for measurements of inter- and intraspecific wing trait variation. Traits include: wing length and width, and color metrics: intensity, hue, saturation, and brightness. </p>
ScienceDex guides
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These curated guides explain access requirements, typical timelines, costs, and reuse considerations for widely used research datasets.
Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
ABODe is a University of Edinburgh DataShare dataset for behavior classification in group-housed mice using home-cage video, identities, bounding boxes, ground-plate positions, and annotator labels.
DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
DANDI is a BRAIN Initiative archive for publishing and sharing neurophysiology data, including electrophysiology, optophysiology, and behavioral data packaged as NWB and related standards.
International Brain Laboratory public data
The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
OpenNeuro
OpenNeuro is a free, open platform for sharing neuroimaging datasets, with public search, dataset pages, and download paths for web, S3, DataLad, and the OpenNeuro CLI.