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opencc-zeroJan 2024View details →

A checklist of European butterfly larval foodplants

Butterflies are charismatic insects, and have been well studied, particularly in Europe. They are disproportionately used in generating and testing hypotheses; on everything from general evolutionary processes, such as speciation, or host association dynamics; to conservation-related studies, such as climate change or habitat loss. Accurate lists of the larval foodplants for European butterflies are not readily available. Mistakes are propagated and information can't be checked for accuracy. The level of evidence is unknown, and how usage varies between countries poorly understood. The study consulted 1,119 references to produce 19,488 records of larval foodplants for European butterflies. This resulted in 5,589 larval host plant records for 464 European butterfly species, with multiple references, enabling information to be checked. Information was unavailable for 59 species. The level of evidence for each relationship show the current state of knowledge. Significant issue were identified for 3.9% of records extracted from references due to mistakes, ambiguous or unknown plant names, distribution issues, resulting in information being lost. Plants with a questionable distributions suggest either misidentification, or species that have been split. Little is known about plant usage in eastern Europe. The larval foodplants of many monophagous and Satyrinae butterflies are poorly studied. Only 64% of threatened 2010 Red Listed butterflies have reliable host plant records. The study has provided ecologists with a valuable resource, of a more accurate checklist of the larval foodplants for each European country. Why plant usage varies over a butterfly's distribution, opens up some interesting research questions.

opencc-zeroJan 2024View details →

Data from: Ultraviolet signaling in a butterfly is preferred by females and conveys male genetic quality

Indicator models of sexual selection posit that females chose males on the basis of traits that reveal male genetic quality and thereby enjoy increased offspring production. Here we report that females of the butterfly Eurema hecabe receive indirect benefits from choosing males based on their UV wing colouration, a heritable and condition-dependent trait in this species. We first used a large laboratory-bred pedigree to demonstrate a per-family association between inbreeding and male UV trait value. Females exerted choice for UV-bright males within this protocol, and average male UV trait value increased over six consecutive generations presumably due to such selection and despite an increasing rate of pedigree-wide inbreeding. We then experimentally imposed a standard strength of inbreeding upon lines of divergent male UV trait value. Inbreeding depressed the siring performance of low-UV treatment males more severely and resulted in a marginal reduction of their UV brightness, which rebounded sharply following subsequent outcrossing. These findings are consistent with the ornament-based signaling of genetic quality as a function of underlying individual-level mutational load.

opencc-zeroJan 2024View details →

Wing lengths of three Arctic butterfly species decrease as summers warm in Alaska

Climate warming can cause arthropods to express plastic and/or evolved changes in morphology. Previous studies have demonstrated that body sizes of Arctic butterflies are influenced by the temperatures experienced as larvae. To investigate whether this was occurring among Alaskan butterflies, we analyzed temporal trends in the wing sizes of three Holarctic species, Colias hecla, Boloria chariclea, and Boloria freija, using museum specimens collected in Arctic tundra regions of Alaska between 1971 and 1995. Wing length was compared to accumulated growing degree days (GDD) during both the spring of the year collected and the previous year's summer during the normal period of larval development. We used mixed-effects models to test if spring and summer temperatures affected adult morphology. Results show that for every 1°C increase in average seasonal temperature, wingspans decreased between 0.7 millimeters and 5 millimeters, with B. freija the most strongly affected. Our results suggest that the morphological sensitivity of Arctic butterflies to warming is the outcome of interactions between life-history traits and regional climate, with all species sensitive to warming the summer before the flight year as well as warming the spring of the flight year. Boloria freija, which overwinters as late instar larvae that do not feed before pupation the following spring, was particularly strongly affected by summer warming.

opencc-by-4.0May 2023View details →

Data and Analyses for Host plant-mediation of viral transmission and its consequences for a native butterfly

This contains R code for all analyses and creation of figures included in the publication entitled "Host plant-mediation of viral transmission and its Q1 consequences for a native butterfly". This article has now been accepted for publication under DOI: 10.1002/ecy.4282. The files containing the data analysis script have been updated to reflect the final analyses included in this paper.

Data from: Genomic integrity of Phyciodes butterfly species in a region of contact (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae)

Crescent butterflies of the Phyciodes tharos group have a long-standing reputation for taxonomic difficulty. We assessed species boundaries in the P. tharos group using genome-wide SNP data, focusing on sampling in western Canada where four species (P. tharos, P. cocyta, P. pulchella, and P. batesii) have classically been recognized. Phylogenetic and cluster-based analyses confirm that there are indeed four species based on the maintenance of genomic integrity in the presence of occasional hybridization and low levels of gene flow. Mitochondrial COI does not consistently distinguish species, with haplotypes extensively shared between species. Here, we provide data matrices and tree files from the phylogenetic and cluster-based analyses.

Figure 5 in Mitochondrial genomes of four pierid butterfly species (Lepidoptera: Pieridae) with assessments about Pieridae phylogeny upon multiple mitogenomic datasets

Figure 5. Predicted secondary structures of Pontia callidice and Pontia daplidice 22 tRNA genes.

Figure 10 in Mitochondrial genomes of four pierid butterfly species (Lepidoptera: Pieridae) with assessments about Pieridae phylogeny upon multiple mitogenomic datasets

Figure 10. Predicted secondary structure of Pontia callidice srRNA gene.

Figure 8 in Mitochondrial genomes of four pierid butterfly species (Lepidoptera: Pieridae) with assessments about Pieridae phylogeny upon multiple mitogenomic datasets

Figure 8. Predicted secondary structure of Talbotia naganum srRNA gene.

Figure 6 in Mitochondrial genomes of four pierid butterfly species (Lepidoptera: Pieridae) with assessments about Pieridae phylogeny upon multiple mitogenomic datasets

Figure 6. Predicted secondary structure of Baltia butleri srRNA gene.

Figure 4 in Mitochondrial genomes of four pierid butterfly species (Lepidoptera: Pieridae) with assessments about Pieridae phylogeny upon multiple mitogenomic datasets

Figure 4. Predicted secondary structures of Baltia butleri and Talbotia naganum 22 tRNA genes.

Figure 12 in Mitochondrial genomes of four pierid butterfly species (Lepidoptera: Pieridae) with assessments about Pieridae phylogeny upon multiple mitogenomic datasets

Figure 12. Predicted secondary structure of Pontia daplidice srRNA gene.

Rapid responses of bees and butterflies but not birds to targeted urban road verge habitat enhancements

Cities provide opportunities for biodiversity conservation through the design of urban greenspaces as wildlife habitat. A significant proportion of urban public land is narrow linear road verges, though their small size and harsh environmental conditions (e.g. high soil temperatures) may limit their ability to support plants and animals. We worked with a municipal government in a highly urbanised area to test whether conversion of standard road verges (e.g. lawn) to predominantly native understorey plants (forbs, grasses, and shrubs) selected for their abilities to tolerate harsh growing conditions and provide habitat increased the abundance and richness of bees, butterflies, and birds. We used a before-after-control-impact experiment and characterised temporal dynamics of biodiversity responses one year prior to planting and four years post planting. We also tested whether traits known to influence species responses to urbanisation (body size and feeding specialisation) mediated responses to road verge plantings. Bee species richness and abundance increased at experimental plantings in the first post-planting year and remained stable thereafter despite fluctuations at control sites. Butterfly abundance but not richness increased, and there was no evidence of bird responses to plantings. Larger bee species, which are known to be most negatively impacted by urbanisation, benefited more from the road verge plantings, while there was no effect of feeding specialisation. Bird and butterfly traits did not mediate responses to plantings. Synthesis and applications: Road verges comprise a significant proportion of urban green spaces, and our results suggest that despite their small sizes and harsh environmental conditions they can provide habitat for bees and to a lesser extent butterflies. We demonstrated that habitat value can be rapidly enhanced by converting standard road verges to native understorey plants, and that these benefits may be greatest for the bee species most negatively impacted by urbanisation. Modifications such as additional plant species or wider verges may be required for urban road verges to provide habitat for a greater range of taxa including birds and butterflies.

Demography and environment modulate the effects of genetic diversity on extinction risk in a butterfly metapopulation

Linking genetic diversity to extinction is a common goal in genomic studies. Recently, a debate has arisen regarding the importance of genetic variation in conservation as some studies have failed to find associations between genome-wide genetic diversity and extinction risk. However, only rarely are genetic diversity and fitness measured together in the wild, and typically variation in demographic history or environment are ignored. It is therefore difficult to infer whether a lack of an association is real or obscured by confounding factors. To address these shortcomings, we analysed genetic data from 7,501 individuals with extinction data from 279 meadows and mortality of 1,742 larval nests in a butterfly metapopulation. We found strong negative associations between genetic diversity and extinction when heterozygosity was included alone in models. However, this association was no longer present when ecological covariates were included. Interactions between heterozygosity and demographic variables revealed that associations are context-dependent or only detectable when confounding factors are controlled. For example, extinction declined with increasing heterozygosity in large but not currently small populations, although negative associations between heterozygosity, extinction, and mortality were detected in populations with a recent history of decline. We conclude that low genetic diversity is an important predictor of extinction, predicting >25% increase in extinction beyond ecological factors in certain contexts. This highlights that inferences about the importance of genetic diversity should not rely on genomic data alone but requires investments in obtaining demographic and environmental data from natural populations to jointly assess their impact on population extinction risk.

A comprehensive phylogeny of Pieridae butterflies reveals a strong correlation between diversification and temperature

Temperature is thought to be a key factor influencing global species richness patterns. We investigate the link between temperature and diversification in the butterfly Family Pieridae by combining next-generation sequences and published molecular data with fine-grained distribution data. We sampled nearly 600 pierid species to build the most comprehensive molecular phylogeny of the Family and curated a distribution dataset of more than 800,000 occurrences. We found strong evidence that species in environments with more stable daily temperatures or cooler maximum temperatures in the warm seasons have higher speciation rates. Furthermore, speciation and extinction rates decreased in tandem with global temperatures through geological time, resulting in a constant net diversification.

opencc-zeroApr 2024View details →

Phenotypic plasticity in tropical butterflies is linked to climatic seasonality on a macroevolutionary scale

Phenotypic plasticity can be adaptive in fluctuating environments by providing rapid environment-phenotype matching and this applies particularly in seasonal environments. African Bicyclus butterflies have repeatedly colonized seasonal savannahs from ancestral forests around the Late Miocene and many species now exhibit seasonal polyphenism. On a macroevolutionary scale, it can be expected that savannah species will exhibit higher plasticity due to them experiencing stronger environmental seasonality than forest species. We quantified seasonality using environmental niche modelling, and surveyed the degree of plasticity in a key wing pattern element (eyespot size) using museum specimens. We show that species occurring in highly seasonal environments display strong plasticity, while species in less seasonal or aseasonal environments exhibit surprisingly variable degrees of plasticity, including strong to no plasticity. Furthermore, eyespot size plasticity has a moderate phylogenetic signal and the ancestral Bicyclus likely exhibited some degree of plasticity. We propose hypotheses to explain the range of plasticity patterns seen in less seasonal environments, and generate testable predictions for the evolution of plasticity in Bicyclus. Our study provides one of the most compelling cases showing links between seasonality and phenotypic plasticity on a macroevolutionary scale and the potential role of plasticity in facilitating the colonization of novel environments.

opencc-by-4.0Nov 2023View details →

Figure 3 in Degrees of specialism in butterflies: a method for defining levels of specialism and an evaluation of South African species

Figure 3 – Number of South African butterfly species by ESI category.

Figure 7 in A contribution to the knowledge of the butterfly fauna of Maputo Special Reserve, Mozambique from African Natural History Research Trust expeditions (Papilionoidea)

Figure 7 – Gretna carmen capra ♂ habitus. Dorsal (A), ventral (B). Scale bar = 1cm.

Figure 6 in A contribution to the knowledge of the butterfly fauna of Maputo Special Reserve, Mozambique from African Natural History Research Trust expeditions (Papilionoidea)

Figure 6 – Acraea nohara halali ♂ habitus. Dorsal (A), ventral (B). Scale bar = 1cm.

Figure 5 in A contribution to the knowledge of the butterfly fauna of Maputo Special Reserve, Mozambique from African Natural History Research Trust expeditions (Papilionoidea)

Figure 5 – Iolaus lulua ♂ habitus. Dorsal (A), ventral (B). Scale bar = 1cm

Figure 4 in A contribution to the knowledge of the butterfly fauna of Maputo Special Reserve, Mozambique from African Natural History Research Trust expeditions (Papilionoidea)

Figure 4 – Deloneura millari ♂ habitus. Dorsal (A), ventral (B). Scale bar = 1cm