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2,390 results for “butterflies”

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zenodo36/100

Figure 1 in Butterfly surveys in Albania during 2014 including the discovery of two new species for the country

Figure 1. Map of Albania with surveyed areas indicated with numerals.

opencc-by-4.0Jul 2015View details →

dryad36/100

Chromosome-level assemblies of the Pieris mannii butterfly genome suggest Z-origin and rapid evolution of the W chromosome

The insect order Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) represents the largest group of organisms with ZW/ZZ sex determination. While the origin of the Z chromosome predates the evolution of the Lepidoptera, the W chromosomes are considered younger, but their origin is debated. To shed light on the origin of the lepidopteran W, we here produce chromosome-level genome assemblies for the butterfly Pieris mannii, and compare the sex chromosomes within and between P. mannii and its sister species P. rapae. Our analyses clearly indicate a common origin of the W chromosomes of the two Pieris species, and reveal similarity between the Z and W in chromosome sequence and structure. This supports the view that the W in these species originates from Z-autosome fusion rather than from a redundant B chromosome. We further demonstrate the extremely rapid evolution of the W relative to the other chromosomes and argue that this may preclude reliable conclusions about the origins of W chromosomes based on comparisons among distantly related Lepidoptera. Finally, we find that sequence similarity between the Z and W chromosomes is greatest toward the chromosome ends, perhaps reflecting selection for the maintenance of recognition sites essential to chromosome segregation. Our study highlights the utility of long-read sequencing technology for illuminating chromosome evolution.

opencc-zeroJun 2023View details →

dryad36/100

Oviposition behaviour is not affected by ultraviolet light in a butterfly with sexually-dimorphic expression of a UV-sensitive opsin

Animal vision is important for mediating multiple complex behaviours. In Heliconius butterflies, vision guides fundamental behaviours such as oviposition, foraging and mate choice. Colour vision in Heliconius involves ultraviolet (UV), blue and long- wavelength sensitive photoreceptors (opsins). Additionally, Heliconius possess a duplicated UV opsin, and its expression varies widely within the genus. In Heliconius erato, opsin expression is sexually dimorphic; only females express both UV-sensitive opsins, enabling UV wavelength discrimination. However, the selective pressures responsible for sex-specific differences in opsin expression and visual perception remain unresolved. Female Heliconius invest heavily in finding suitable hostplants for oviposition, a behaviour heavily dependent on visual cues. Here, we tested the hypothesis that UV vision is important for oviposition in H. erato and Heliconius himera females by manipulating the availability of UV in behavioural experiments under natural conditions. Our results indicate that UV does not influence the number of oviposition attempts or eggs laid, and the hostplant, Passiflora punctata, does not reflect UV wavelengths. Models of H. erato female vision suggest only minimal stimulation of the UV opsins. Overall, these findings suggest that UV wavelengths do not directly affect the ability of Heliconius females to find suitable oviposition sites. Alternatively, UV discrimination could be used in the context of foraging or mate choice, but this remains to be tested.

opencc-zeroJun 2023View details →

zenodo36/100

FB28-stained intracellular structures in butterfly wing epithelial cells in vivo

We reconstructed the 3D video images of FB28-stained intracellular structures in butterfly wing epithelial cells in vivo.  These videos are supplementary materials for Figure 5a and Figure 5b in a research article.

opencc-by-4.0Jun 2023View details →

dryad36/100

Historical Mark Release Recapture (MRR) studies of selection and plasticity in butterflies

Historical data on plasticity, selection and evolution of phenotypic traits in the wild provide an important resource for understanding how populations are responding to ongoing anthropogenic environmental changes. We provide the datasets associated with a series of Mark Release Recapture (MRR) studies that quantified seasonal variation in plasticity and phenotypic selection in a natural population of Pontia occidentalis butterflies in southcentral WA USA between 1989–1996. The studies examined both natural and experimentally-generated variation in two types of traits: wing melanin pattern on each wing surface; and wing and body size and shape. Papers published during the 1990s that summarized the results of these studies demonstrated phenotypic plasticity and directional selection on some of the traits that varied with seasonal weather conditions. Here we present the original, underlying data for each of the nine studies. These data may be valuable for exploring newer statistical approaches for modeling MRR studies of selection and plasticity, and for evaluating historical changes in selection and evolution of traits related to climate adaptation in response to ongoing climate and other environmental changes.

opencc-zeroJul 2023View details →

dryad36/100

Phylogenomics reveal extensive phylogenetic discordance due to incomplete lineage sorting following the rapid radiation of alpine butterflies (Papilionidae: Parnassius)

In rapid radiation, the earliest components of evolutionary divergence are often difficult to resolve, which were always driven by the characteristics of taxa and the limitations of alternative analytical methods. The origin and radiation of the alpine butterfly Parnassius, a high-altitude mountainous insect group, can be attributed to the uplift of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP). Despite detailed phylogenetic analyses of the genus, deep phylogenetic relationships among the major subgenera remain recalcitrant. In this study, 102 individuals from 10 representative Parnassius species were sampled to resolve the phylogenetic relationships among subgenera based on nuclear and mitochondrial genome data sets. Gene-tree/species-tree conflicts were detected by concatenation and multispecies coalescent (MSC) approaches. We recovered a well-supported species tree, despite these conflicts, and detected considerable phylogenetic discordance among genomic regions. The main explanation for the topological discordance among subgenera was extensive incomplete lineage sorting (ILS), whereas introgression events were not prominent. The origin and explosive radiation of Parnassius (i.e., rapid succession of speciation events) in the late Miocene associated with environmental events on the plateau led to short internal branches, thereby increasing ILS and topological conflicts, especially among closely related subgenera. Our results also suggested that MSC approaches (SNAPP and SVDquartets) are accurate and superior to the concatenation approach; in particular, SVDquartets can explicitly accommodate gene-tree/species-tree conflicts caused by high ILS and demonstrate strong robustness. Lastly, we explored the phylogenomic data by testing multiple sources of phylogenomic conflict to clarify the strengths and limitations of different approaches, while considering phylogenetic signal variation in mitochondrial loci. We anticipate that the phylogeny described here will be the backbone of future evolutionary studies of the genus and will provide insight into phylogenetic discordance due to rapid radiation.

opencc-zeroJul 2023View details →

dryad36/100

Plant water limitation and its impact on the oviposition preferences of the monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae)

Intensifying drought conditions across the western United States due to global climate change are altering plant-insect interactions. Specialist herbivores must find their host plants within a matrix of nonhosts, and thus often rely upon specific plant secondary chemistry for host location and oviposition cues. Climate-induced alterations to plant chemistry could thus affect female selection of larval food-plants. Here, we investigated whether host-plant water limitation influenced oviposition preference in a threatened invertebrate: the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus). We found that females deposited more eggs on reduced-water than on well-watered narrowleaf milkweed plants (Asclepias fascicularis), but we could not attribute this change to any specific change in plant chemistry. Specialist herbivores, such as the monarch butterfly, which are tightly linked to specific plant cues, may experience a shift in preferences under global-change conditions. Understanding oviposition preferences will be important to directing ongoing habitat restoration activities for this declining insect.

opencc-zeroAug 2023View details →

dryad36/100

Temporal matches between monarch butterfly and milkweed population changes over the past 25,000 years

In intimate ecological interactions, the interdependency of species may result in correlated demographic histories. For species of conservation concern, understanding the long-term dynamics of such interactions may shed light on the drivers of population decline. Here we address the demographic history of the monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus, and its dominant host plant, the common milkweed, Asclepias syriaca, using broad-scale sampling and genomic inference. Because genetic resources for milkweed have lagged behind those for monarchs, we first release a chromosome-level genome assembly and annotation for common milkweed. Next, we show that despite its enormous geographic range across eastern North America, A. syriaca is best characterized as a single, roughly panmictic population. Using Approximate Bayesian Computation via Random Forests (ABC-RF), a machine learning method for reconstructing demographic histories, we show that both monarchs and milkweed experienced population expansion during the most recent recession of North American glaciers 10,000–20,000 years ago. Our data also identify concurrent population expansions in both species during the large-scale clearing of eastern forests (~200 years ago). Finally, we find no evidence that either species experienced a reduction in effective population size over the past 75 years. Thus, the well-documented decline of monarch abundance over the past 40 years is not visible in our genomic dataset, reflecting a possible mismatch of the overwintering census population to effective population size in this species.

opencc-zeroAug 2023View details →

zenodo36/100

Data & R Code for "Enhanced long-term memory and increased mushroom body plasticity in Heliconius butterflies"

This ZIP file contains the data and R code used to analyse it for the paper "Enhanced long-term memory and increased mushroom body plasticity in Heliconius butterflies". Behavioural and neuroanatomical data are in separate folders.

opencc-by-4.0Jul 2023View details →

zenodo36/100

Data from: Diversity of Andean shrubland puna butterflies of the genus Punargentus (Nymphalidae, Satyrinae, Satyrini, Pronophilina) with the description of two new species and two new subspecies

Two new species and two new subspecies of the satyrine butterfly genus Punargentus Heimlich – P. atusparia n. sp., P. heimlichi n. sp., P. blanchardi libertas n. ssp. and P. atusparia yupania n. ssp. – are described from north-central Peru (Áncash, Huánuco and La Libertad). The affinities of the new taxa are evaluated based on molecular data obtained by target enrichment and COI barcoding. Punargentus is fully supported and divides into two branches, P. lamna clade with four species, and P. blanchardi clade with three species, two of which described here. The species of the P. blanchardi clade occur in Andean shrubland, at 2800-3600 m, whereas those of P. lamna clade are found in puna grassland at 3600-4600 m, with occasional overlapping. Considered their habitat preference, none of the newly described species requires immediate conservation measures.

opencc-by-4.0Aug 2023View details →

zenodo36/100

Bennett_Butterflies

Collection of butterfly network analysis.

opencc-by-4.0Sep 2023View details →

dryad36/100

Data from: Do chromosome rearrangements fix by genetic drift or natural selection? Insights from Brenthis butterflies

Large-scale chromosome rearrangements, such as fissions and fusions, are a common feature of eukaryote evolution. They can have considerable influence on the evolution of populations, yet it remains unclear exactly how rearrangements become established and eventually fix. Rearrangements could fix by genetic drift if they are weakly deleterious or neutral, or they may instead be favoured by positive natural selection. Here we compare genome assemblies of three closely related Brenthis butterfly species and characterise a complex history of fission and fusion rearrangements. An inferred demographic history of these species suggests that rearrangements became fixed in populations with large long-term effective size (Ne). However, we also find large runs of homozygosity within individual genomes and show that a model of population structure with smaller local Ne can reconcile these observations. Using a recently developed analytic framework for characterising hard selective sweeps, we find that chromosome fusions are not enriched for evidence of past sweeps compared to other regions of the genome. Nonetheless, one chromosome fusion in the B. daphne genome is associated with a valley of diversity where genealogical branch lengths are distorted, consistent with a selective sweep. Our results suggest that drift is a stronger force in these populations than suggested by overall genetic diversity, but that the fixation of strongly underdominant rearrangements remains unlikely. Additionally, although chromosome fusions do not typically exhibit signatures of selective sweeps, a single example raises the possibility that natural selection may sometimes play a role in their fixation.

opencc-zeroOct 2023View details →

dryad36/100

Evolutionary history and analysis of iridescent ultraviolet butterfly scales

Iridescent ultraviolet (IUV) patterns on pierid butterfly wings are phenotypic adaptations commonly used as sexual signals, generated by scales with ultrastructural modifications. Pierid IUV patterns are sexually dichromatic, with reduced size in females, where conspicuous sexual signaling balances courtship against ecological predation. There have been no phylogenetic reconstructions of IUV within Pieridae and little morphological characterization of phenotypic diversity. Our genus-wide characterization of IUV revealed the uniform similarity of stacked lamellar ridges on the dorsal surface of cover scales. We tested a hypothesis of single versus multiple origins by reconstructing a phylogeny of 534 species (~43.2% described species), with all genera represented, and a trait matrix of 734 species (~59.4%) screened for IUV. A single, early dimorphic origin of IUV followed by several losses and gains received strong support, concluding that IUV patterns and structural coloration are old traits. Collectively, these results support the homology of IUV scales and patterns that diversified within several lineages, suggesting an interplay between female-mediated sexual selection and ecological predatory selection.

opencc-zeroOct 2023View details →

dryad36/100