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opencc-by-4.0Jun 2022View details →

Figure 2 in A contribution to the knowledge of the butterfly fauna of Maputo Special Reserve, Mozambique from African Natural History Research Trust expeditions (Papilionoidea)

Figure 2 – Afrogegenes letterstedti ♀ habitus. Dorsal (A), ventral (B). Scale bar = 1cm.

opencc-by-4.0Nov 2023View details →

Data from "Bending the course of evolution: how mutualistic interactions affect macroevolutionary dynamics of diversification in mimetic Ithomiini butterflies"

Data and codes for the analyses from Chazot et al. "Bending the course of evolution: how mutualistic interactions affect macroevolutionary dynamics of diversification in mimetic Ithomiini butterflies". Check README for more information about the files.

opencc-by-4.0Nov 2023View details →

Perceptual maps of Heliconiini butterflies: images, 3D spaces, 2D maps, and mimicry ring listings

<h3>Summary</h3> This repository contains images, 3D animated spaces, 2D perceptual maps with GMM, and mimicry ring lists for heliconiine butterflies complementing the analyses presented in this research paper: "Doré et al., 2025 - Perceptual maps reveal rampant convergence in butterfly wing patterns across the Neotropics. in prep.". <h3>Abstract</h3>     In 1879, Fritz Müller formulated the first mathematical evolutionary model to explain mutualistic mimicry between coexisting defended prey. Yet, the degree to which local mimicry drives the structure of prey aposematic signals at continental scale remains unclear, because the perception of pattern similarity has never been assessed at large spatial scale. Here, we implement a Citizen Science survey to quantify and analyze the structure of perceived variation in the wing patterns of heliconiine butterflies (Nymphalidae: Heliconiini) throughout the entire Neotropics. Despite a continuum of perceived wing patterns at the continental scale, we show that the convergence of sympatric species into discrete mimicry rings is ubiquitous among communities. These results expand Müller’s historical predictions by supporting the rampant convergence of prey signals across an entire continent.   <h3>Contents</h3> This repository contains three folders: <ul> <li>"3D_maps" contains the animated 3D perceptual spaces of heliconiine wing patterns for the Citizen Science dataset (N = 432) and the Local reference for the five local communities highlighted in the article.</li> <li>"Clustering" contains the 2D perceptual maps and associated lists of mimicry rings built for each of the five local communities, for different level of clustering from GMM (K from 5 to 10).</li> <li>"Images" contains the 432 images of dorsal wing patterns of heliconiine butterflies used in the online survey (<a href="https://memometic.cleverapps.io/">https://memometic.cleverapps.io/</a>) designed for this study.</li> </ul> <h3>How to cite</h3> Please cite this research article as: <blockquote> Doré, M., Pérochon, E., Aubier, T.G., Le Poul, Y., Joron, M., Elias, M., 2025. Perceptual maps reveal rampant convergence in butterfly wing patterns across the Neotropics. in prep. <a href="https://doi.org/TBA">https://doi.org/TBA</a> </blockquote> <h3>Associated ressources</h3> The source codes for the analyses carried out in the study are available on <a href="https://github.com/MaelDore/Perceptual_map_Heliconiini">GitHub</a>.   The occurrences data and distribution maps used in this study are publicly available from Zenodo: Occurrences data at <a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10906853">https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10906853</a>; Distribution maps at <a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10903661">https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10903661</a>. The online Citizen Science survey on the perception of mimicry in wing color patterns of heliconiine butterflies is temporary available at <a href="https://memometic.cleverapps.io/">https://memometic.cleverapps.io/</a>. Source code for the online Citizen Science survey are accessible on <a href="https://github.com/MaelDore/Memometic_website">GitHub</a>.

opencc-zeroNov 2021View details →

Movement, translocation and MRR data for Heliconius butterflies

Site fidelity plays an important role in increasing foraging efficiency, particularly when food resources are reliable. In insects, site fidelity has largely been studied in Hymenopteran species, which consistently return to their nest site after foraging bouts. In butterflies, evidence of foraging site fidelity are limited but may be present in species with specific foraging specialisations, such as Heliconius, which have a derived foraging behaviour centred around active pollen feeding. Unlike many Hymenoptera, Heliconius are neither eusocial nor nesting species, positioning them as a peculiar case where foraging site fidelity may occur in the absence of any central nest-like structure. However, to date, existing studies do not consider low dispersal as an alternative to site fidelity. In this study, we use a mark-release-recapture experiment to test whether individuals of two Heliconius species exhibit true site fidelity. We further test this fidelity by measuring flight orientation during a translocation experiment, and by recapturing translocated butterflies to identify whether individuals return to their site of origin. We found that non-translocated butterflies display extreme stability in site choice, and translocated butterflies consistently return to their site of origin, rapidly orientating towards their home site upon release. This suggests site fidelity in Heliconius is not solely explained by low dispersal, but is a response to the distribution and stability in ecological resources. We further note that the ability to return to home sites when artificially dispersed suggests a sophisticated ability to navigate to specific spatial goals. Our study provides insights into the ecological drivers of site fidelity, a novel example distinct from nest building or group living, and opens an avenue of new research on navigational mechanisms in insects.

opencc-zeroNov 2021View details →

Local thermal environment and warming influence supercooling and drive widespread shifts in the metabolome of diapausing Pieris rapae butterflies

Global climate change has the potential to negatively impact biological systems as organisms are exposed to novel temperature regimes. Increases in annual mean temperature have been accompanied by disproportionate rates of change in temperature across seasons, and winter is the season warming most rapidly. Yet, we know relatively little about how warming will alter the physiology of overwintering organisms. Here, we simulated future warming conditions by comparing diapausing Pieris rapae butterfly pupae collected from disparate thermal environments and by exposing P. rapae pupae to acute and chronic increases in temperature. First, we compared internal freezing temperatures (supercooling points) of diapausing pupae that were developed in common-garden conditions but whose parents were collected from northern Vermont, USA, or North Carolina, USA. Matching the warmer winter climate of North Carolina, North Carolina pupae had significantly higher supercooling points than Vermont pupae. Next, we measured the effects of acute and chronic warming exposure in Vermont pupae and found that warming induced higher supercooling points. We further characterized the effects of chronic warming by profiling the metabolomes of Vermont pupae via untargeted LC-MS metabolomics. Warming caused significant changes in abundance of hundreds of metabolites across the metabolome. Notably, there were warming-induced shifts in key biochemical pathways, such as pyruvate metabolism, fructose and mannose metabolism, and β-alanine metabolism, suggesting shifts in energy metabolism and cryoprotection. These results suggest that warming affects various aspects of overwintering physiology in P. rapae and may be detrimental depending on the frequency and variation of winter warming events. Further research is needed to ascertain the extent to which the effects of warming are felt among a broader set of populations of P. rapae, and among other species, in order to better predict how insects may respond to changes in winter thermal environments.

opencc-zeroNov 2021View details →

Geographic homogenization but little net change in the local richness of Canadian butterflies

Aim: Recent studies have found that local-scale plots measured through time exhibit marked variation in the change in species richness. However, the overall effect often reveals no net change. Most studies thus far have been agnostic about the identities of the species lost/gained, as well as the processes that may lead to these changes. Generalist traits may be crucial in allowing species to colonize new plots or remain resilient in situ, whereas environmental filtering may remove specialists. We test whether plots are changing in species richness, whether they are becoming more similar (i.e. becoming homogenized) through time, as well as whether several generalist traits can predict gains or losses from local plots. Location: Canada Time period: 1945-2015 Major taxa studied: 265 species of butterflies Methods: We measured i. species richness change and ii. pairwise beta diversity across 96 well-sampled 10x10 km plots across Canada between two time periods: 1945-1975 and 1985-2015. We looked at the effects of wingspan, mobility, diet breadth and range size on the number of grid cells each species gained and lost between time periods. Results: We observed a slight increase in plot-level species richness, and that these communities are becoming homogenized through time. We note that most butterfly species in Canada have large North American ranges, but the widest-ranged species are better able to colonize new plots than narrower-ranged species, but also experience higher frequencies of local extinctions. In sum, the median range size of species within a plot increased through time. Main conclusions: We highlight that, even when local species richness exhibits very little change, other potentially important biodiversity changes, such as geographic homogenization due to the colonization dynamics of already widely distributed species, can occur. Such patterns can reconcile observed global losses of species with the simultaneous lack of change in local diversity.

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2020View details →

Results of Mothra analysis of all iCollections butterflies

Results of Mothra analysis of all iCollections butterflies including analysis pipeline files. This dataset supports the publication: "Applying computer vision to digitised natural history collections for climate change research: temperature-size responses in British butterflies"

opencc-zeroJan 2022View details →

Simple and complex, sexually dimorphic retinal mosaic of fritillary butterflies

Butterflies have variable sets of spectral photoreceptors that underlie colour vision. The photoreceptor organization may be optimised for the detection of body colouration. Fritillaries (Argynnini) are nymphalid butterflies exhibiting varying degrees of sexual dimorphism in wing colouration. In two sister species, the females have orange (Argynnis paphia) and dark wings (A. sagana), respectively, while the males of both species have orange wings with large patches of pheromone-producing androconia. In spite of the differences in female colouration, the eyes of both species exhibit an identical sexual dimorphism. The female eyeshine is uniform yellow, while the males have a complex retinal mosaic with yellow and red-reflecting ommatidia. We found the basic set of UV-, blue- and green-peaking photoreceptors in both sexes. Males additionally have three more photoreceptor classes, peaking in the green, yellow and red, respectively. The latter is the basal R9, indirectly measured through hyperpolarisations in the green-peaking R1-2. In many nymphalid tribes, including the closely related Heliconiini, the retinal mosaic is complex in both sexes. We hypothesise that the simple mosaic of female Argynnini is a secondary reduction, possibly driven by the use of olfaction for intraspecific recognition, whereas vision remains the primary sense for the task in the males.

opencc-zeroFeb 2022View details →

Opponent processing in the retinal mosaic of nymphalid butterflies

The eyes of nymphalid butterflies, investigated with incident illumination, show colourful facet reflection patterns, the eye shine, which is uniform or heterogeneous, dependent on the species. Facet colours suggest that the ommatidia contain different sets of photoreceptors and screening pigments, but how the colours and the cell characteristics are associated has not been clearly established. Here we analyse the retinae of two nymphalids, Apatura ilia, which has a uniform eyeshine, and Charaxes jasius, a species with a heterogeneous eye shine, using single-cell recordings, spectroscopy and optical pupillometry. Apatura has UV, blue and green-sensitive photoreceptors, allocated into three ommatidial types. The UV and blue-sensitive cells are long visual fibres (LVFs), receiving opponent input from the green-sensitive short visual fibres (SVFs). Charaxes has an expanded set of photoreceptors, allocated into three additional, red-reflecting ommatidial types. All red ommatidia contain green-sensitive LVFs, receiving opponent input from red receptors. In both species, the SVFs do not receive any opponent input. The simple retina of Apatura with three ommatidial types and two different colour-opponent channels can support trichromatic vision. Charaxes has six ommatidial types and three different colour-opponent channels. Its expanded receptor set can support tetrachromatic vision.

opencc-zeroFeb 2022View details →

Environmental variation and biotic interactions limit adaptation at ecological margins: lessons from rainforest Drosophila and European butterflies

Models of local adaptation to spatially varying selection predict that maximum rates of evolution are determined by the interaction between increased adaptive potential owing to increased genetic variation, and the cost genetic variation brings by reducing population fitness. We discuss existing and new results from our laboratory assays and field transplants of rainforest Drosophila and UK butterflies along environmental gradients, which try to test these predictions in natural populations. Our data suggest that: (i) local adaptation along ecological gradients is not consistently observed in time and space, especially where biotic and abiotic interactions affect both gradient steepness and genetic variation in fitness; (ii) genetic variation in fitness observed in the laboratory is only sometimes visible to selection in the field, suggesting that demographic costs can remain high without increasing adaptive potential; and (iii) antagonistic interactions between species reduce local productivity, especially at ecological margins. Such antagonistic interactions steepen gradients and may increase the cost of adaptation by increasing its dimensionality. However, where biotic interactions do evolve, rapid range expansion can follow. Future research should test how the environmental sensitivity of genotypes determines their ecological exposure, and its effects on genetic variation in fitness, to predict the probability of evolutionary rescue at ecological margins. This article is part of the theme issue 'Species' ranges in the face of changing environments (Part II)'.

opencc-by-4.0Feb 2022View details →

Brazilian Butterflies Collected December 2020 to January 2021

Wing Photographs Acraeini, Heliconiini, Danaini, and Ithomiini. Butterflies Collected in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest between December 2020 to January 2021 Author List: Érika C Pinheiro de Castro, Karina Lucas da Silva-Brandão, André Victor Lucci Freitas, Marcio Zikan Cardoso, Eva van der Heijden, Joana Meier, Ian Warren, and Chris Jiggins   EN: This upload contains photographs taken by Eva Van der Heijden, in the Insect Evolution and Genomics Group at the University of Cambridge. This batch contains wild caught specimens collected in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest from December 2020 to January 2021 Butterflies from the following tribes can be found here: Acraeini, Heliconiini, Danaini, Ithomiini. Information on the individual IDs can additionally be found in the csv. Nomenclature CAMXXXXXX : unit ID corresponding to individual samples _v _d: ventral or dorsal Both JPGs and raw image files (CR2) have been uploaded. Information on individual samples from the Butterfly Genetics Group Collection can be found on the public database Earthcape (click <a href="http://heliconius.ecdb.io">here</a> for the database, and here for <a href="https://heliconius.zoo.cam.ac.uk/databases/">FAQ</a>) Please contact Chris Jiggins (c.jiggins[at]zoo.cam.ac.uk) and/or Erika Pinheiro de Castro (ecp38[at]cam.ac.uk)   ------------------------------------------------------ PT:   Este banco de dados contém fotos tiradas por Eva van der Heijden do grupo de pesquisa Insect Evolution and Genomics da Universidade de Cambridge. As fotos correspondem à asas de borboletas coletadas na Mata Atlântica brasileira entre dezembro de 2020 e janeiro de 2021.   As fotos estão organizadas em pastas nomeadas de acordo com as tribos as quais as mesmas fazem parte: Acraeini, Heliconiini, Danaini e Ithomiini. As informações sobre a identificação da espécie de cada amostra estão no arquivo .csv Nomenclatura CAMXXXXXX : número de queda/ID de cada indivíduo _v _d: ventral ou dorsal Este banco de dados contém imagens no formato JPG e CR2. Mais informações sobre cada amostra (data de coleta, local de coleta, coordenadas geográficas, etc.) podem ser encontradas banco de dados de domínio público Earthcape (clique <a href="http://heliconius.ecdb.io/">aqui</a> para acessar o domínio,e <a href="https://heliconius.zoo.cam.ac.uk/databases/">aqui</a> para FAQ). Para mais informações, favor entre em contato com Chris Jiggins (c.jiggins[at]zoo.cam.ac.uk) e/ou Erika Pinheiro de Castro (ecp38[at]cam.ac.uk).

opencc-zeroFeb 2022View details →

A meta-analysis of the effects of habitat aridity, evolutionary history of grazing, and grazing intensity on bee and butterfly communities worldwide

A variety of habitat-associated factors moderate effects of grazing on insect biodiversity. Here, we examine how aridity, evolutionary history of grazing, and grazing intensity individually and interactively mediate the effect of livestock grazing on pollinator diversity (native bees and butterflies). Using a meta-analysis of 59 studies published in the primary literature we characterized the response of pollinator communities to grazing across several continents. In very humid habitats high grazing intensities generally had negative impacts on pollinator abundance and richness, but these effects were not found in semi-arid habitats, where livestock grazing intensity did not interact with aridity to impact pollinator abundance or richness. However, within semi-arid habitats livestock grazing was associated with reduced pollinator richness in areas with short evolutionary histories grazing. Pollinator life history mediated effects of livestock grazing on pollinator communities: livestock grazing had negative impacts on richness of social bees and butterflies but not solitary bees, though abundances of all three pollinator categories were consistently reduced under livestock grazing. Our synthesis suggests that effects of cattle on pollinators may be driven by impacts on nesting habitats (e.g., soil compaction), rather than consumption or alteration of forb cover. Our collective findings have importance for coordinating grazing management and pollinator conservation efforts and help to distinguish how grazing practices could impact pollinator biodiversity across ecoclimatic regions.

opencc-zeroMar 2022View details →

Dataset and R code from: Positive and negative effects of land abandonment on butterfly communities revealed by a hierarchical sampling design across climatic regions

Land abandonment may decrease biodiversity but also provides an opportunity for rewilding. It is therefore necessary to identify areas that may benefit from traditional land management practices and those that may benefit from a lack of human intervention. In this study, we conducted comparative field surveys of butterfly occurrence in abandoned and inhabited settlements in 18 regions of diverse climatic zones in Japan to test the hypotheses that species-specific responses to land abandonment correlate with climatic niches and habitat preferences. Hierarchical models that unified species occurrence and habitat preferences revealed that negative responses to land abandonment were associated with species that have cold climatic niches and utilize open habitats, suggesting that species negatively impacted by land abandonment will decline more due to future climate warming. Maps representing species gains and losses due to land abandonment, which were created from the model estimates, showed similar geographic patterns, but some areas exhibited high species losses relative to gains. Our hierarchical modelling approach was useful for scaling up local-scale effects of land abandonment to a macro-scale assessment, which is crucial to developing spatial conservation strategies in the era of depopulation.

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2021View details →

Fig. 1 in Ecological Analysis Of Butterflies And Day-Flying Moths Diversity Of The Gouraya National Park (Algeria)

Fig. 1. Geographic location of Gouraya National Park and the study sites (Hafir Halim).

opencc-zeroApr 2022View details →

A provisional checklist of European butterfly larval foodplants

Successful conservation of butterflies is dependent on knowing which larval foodplants they use. However, many published lists of larval foodplants have been copied from previous lists, which in turn have been copied from previous lists. Consequently, errors have crept in, and many plant names have long been superseded. This can result in duplicates in the list, with the same plant being given two different names. Most plant lists do not include the authority, which can make it difficult or impossible to identify which plant is being referred to. For the first time, a list of the current accepted plant names utilised by 471 European butterfly larvae is presented, with references. Where possible, errors in previous lists have been removed. The list of larval foodplants doubled from previous published lists. This has resulted in a list of 1506 different plant species in 72 different families. 86 plant records are only known at the generic level. Larval foodplants of 25 butterfly species are currently unknown. Whilst most plant families are utilised by less than six butterfly species, a few plant families are particularly favoured, with the Poaceae and Fabaceae being the most popular. Similarly, most plant species are only utilised by a few butterfly species, butFestuca ovinaandFestuca rubraare favoured by a large number of butterfly species. 20% of European butterfly larvae are monophagous, 50% are oligophagous, and 30% are polyphagous, withCelastrina argiolusable to use plants in 19 different families.

Data from: Stepwise evolution of a butterfly supergene via duplication and inversion

Supergenes maintain adaptive clusters of alleles in the face of genetic mixing. Although usually attributed to inversions, supergenes can be complex, and reconstructing the precise processes that led to recombination suppression and their timing is challenging. We investigated the origin of the BC supergene, which controls variation in warning colouration in the African Monarch butterfly, Danaus chrysippus. By generating chromosome-scale assemblies for all three alleles, we identified multiple structural differences. Most strikingly, we find that a region of >1 million bp underwent several segmental duplications at least 7.5 million years ago. The resulting duplicated fragments appear to have triggered four inversions in surrounding parts of the chromosome, resulting in stepwise growth of the region of suppressed recombination. Phylogenies for the inversions are incongruent with the species tree, and suggest that structural polymorphisms have persisted for at least 4.1 million years. In addition to the role of duplications in triggering inversions, our results suggest a previously undescribed mechanism of recombination suppression through independent losses of divergent duplicated tracts. Overall, our findings add support for a stepwise model of supergene evolution involving a variety of structural changes.

Data from "Evidence of attack deflection suggests adaptive evolution of wing tails in butterflies"

Predation is a powerful selective force shaping many behavioural and morphological traits in prey species. The deflection of predator attacks from vital parts of the prey usually involves the coordinated evolution of prey body shape and colour. Here, we test the deflection effect of hindwing tails in the swallowtail butterfly Iphiclides podalirius. In this species, hindwings display long tails associated with a conspicuous colour pattern. By surveying the wings within a wild population of I. podalirius, we observed that wing damage was much more frequent on the tails. We then used a standardised behavioural assay employing dummy butterflies with real I. podalirius wings to study the location of attacks by great tits Parus major. Wing tails and conspicuous coloration of the hindwings were struck more often than the rest of the body by birds. Finally, we characterised the mechanical properties of fresh wings and found that the tail vein was more fragile than the others, suggesting facilitated escape ability of butterflies attacked at this location. Our results clearly support the deflective effect of hindwing tails and suggest that predation is an important selective driver of the evolution of wing tails and colour pattern in butterflies.

opencc-by-4.0Mar 2022View details →

Figure 4 in A segmented and clawed male foreleg in a newly described genus and species of eumaeine butterfly (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae)

Figure 4. Distribution of Grishinata penny in Ecuador and Peru.

Richness (species numbers) of butterflies in the Iberian Peninsula on a 50 x 50 km UTM grid

This file contains the on richness (species numbers) of butterflies from the Iberian Peninsula as they were used to model richness on contemporary climatic and non-climatic variables, then to forecast richness values to future climate scenarios. This is a text *.csv file.

Fruit-feeding butterfly populations respond to variation in adult food availability: evidence from longitudinal body mass and abundance data

The degree to which variation in adult food availability affects the population dynamics of a species depends on its position on the capital-income breeding continuum. The long-lived butterflies that feed on fruits as adults constitute an example of Lepidoptera with a high degree of income breeding. For three species of fruit-feeding butterflies in Uganda, we assessed the contribution of the income to breeding in the wild, and the consequences of variation in fruit availability for body mass and population dynamics. We interpreted body mass loss within individuals as well as younger individuals having higher body mass than older ones as evidence for the depletion of capital reserves. Despite large sample sizes, we were able to show only modest body mass loss in one species, indicating that large-bodied fruit-feeding butterflies are functionally income breeders in the wild. Butterfly body mass was sensitive to environmental factors, although the responses to fruit availability and weather parameters were dominated by interactive effects. In all three species, periods of higher availability of fruit were followed by periods of higher adult abundance three to five months later, fitting the egg-to-adult time. Our results suggest that adult food is rapidly used for reproduction so that body mass remains stable and population size responds to adult food availability. For these income breeding species, the frequent periods of low adult food availability may select for extended adult longevity for the purpose of postponing reproduction to the onset of more favorable conditions.