Altitude and life-history shape the evolution of Heliconius wings

Do It Well or Not at All: Alternative Flight Solutions for Alpine Insects

Exposed and isolated alpine ecosystems present evolutionary challenges for flying species worldwide. Many insects have undergone dramatic wing reduction in response to these harsh conditions, losing the ability to fly. By contrast, some taxa have countered alpine conditions by evolving larger wings to improve flight ability. In this study, we investigated how two independent clades of Zelandoperla fenestrata stoneflies respond to upland environments. Our results revealed strikingly different adaptations to elevation across the two closely related clades. In Clade 1 (southern South Island), wing length decreases sharply with increasing elevation. In contrast, wing length in the geographically adjacent Clade 2 (northern South Island, and North Island) increases with elevation. These contrasting strategies highlight the diverse adaptive pathways that may exist even for closely related lineages encountering similar environmental challenges.

Altitude is correlated with body size differences among Cotesia flavipes (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) wasps collected in two mountain ranges

Living at high altitudes impose physiological and ecological challenges to which species may respond altering their body size, body proportions, and the shape of their body parts. Despite the importance of this topic for understanding the origin of species diversity, little attention has been invested in this phenomenon at the populational level. This paper study the relationship between altitude and body size, body proportions, and forewing shape venation of two populations of the parasitoid wasp Cotesia flavipes. Wasps were collected from Diatraea spp. larvae from sugarcane crops in two Colombian mountain ranges that cover between 600 m and 2143 m of altitude. Linear measurements of different body regions and geometric morphometrics of the forewing were subject to multivariate comparisons and allometric analyses to assess variation and to compare trends between ranges. Central (600 m to 1704 m) and Eastern Cordillera (877 m to 2143 m) populations showed different trends between body size and altitude. Allometric trends were not uniform within or between populations nor between structures. The allometric slopes of five body measurements from a single altitude differed from these from its own mountain range suggesting that body size trends along the cordilleras are a consequence of altitude and not of intrinsic body resource allocation processes. Wing shape between populations differed; however, these changes were poorly related to altitude. In agreement with recent studies in other groups, the observed allometric and wing shape differences between the two C. flavipes populations could be a plasticity response to altitude with interesting implications for posterior genetic differentiation.

Behavioural changes in aposematic Heliconius melpomene butterflies in response to their predatory bird calls

Prey-predator interactions have resulted in the evolution of many anti-predatory traits. One of them is the ability for prey to listen to predators and avoid them. Although prey anti-predatory behavioural responses to predator auditory cues are well described in a wide range of taxa, studies on whether butterflies change their behaviours in response to their predatory calls are lacking. Heliconius butterflies are unpalatable and form Müllerian mimicry rings as morphological defence strategies against their avian predators. Like many other butterflies in the Nymphalidae family, some Heliconius butterflies possess auditory organs, which are hypothesized to assist with predator detection. Here we test whether Heliconius melpomene change their behaviour in response to their predatory bird calls by observing the behaviour of male and female H. m. plessini exposed to calls of Heliconius avian predators: rufous-tailed jacamar, migratory Eastern kingbird, and resident tropical kingbird. We also exposed them to the calls of the toco toucan, a frugivorous bird as a control bird call, and an amplified greenhouse background noise as a noise control. We found that individuals changed their behaviour in response to jacamar calls only. Males increased their walking and fluttering behaviour, while females did not change their behaviour during the playback of the jacamar call. Intersexual behaviours like courtship, copulation, and abdomen lifting did not change in response to bird calls. Our findings suggest that despite having primary predatory defences like toxicity and being in a mimicry ring, H. m. plessini butterflies changed their behaviour in response to predator calls. Furthermore, this response was predator specific, as H. m. plesseni did not respond to either the Eastern kingbird or the tropical kingbird calls. This suggests that Heliconius butterflies may be able to differentiate predatory calls, and potentially the birds associated with those calls.

Variety is the spice: The role of morphological variation of Triatoma infestans (Hemiptera, Reduviidae) at a macro-scale

Chagas disease is caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi (Chagas, 1909). One of the primary vectors of T. cruzi in South America is Triatoma infestans (Klug, 1834). This triatomine species is distributed across a huge latitudinal gradient, inhabiting domiciliary , peridomiciliary , and wild environments. Its wide geographic distribution provides an excellent opportunity to study the relationships between environmental gradients and intraspecific morphological variation. In this study, we investigated variations in wing size and shape in T. infestans across six ecoregions. We aimed to address the following questions: How do wing size and shape vary on a regional scale, does morphological variation follow specific patterns along an environmental or latitudinal gradient, and what environmental factors might contribute to wing variation? Geometric morphometric methods were applied to the wings of 162 females belonging to 21 T. infestans populations, 13 from Argentina (n = 105), 5 from Bolivia (n = 42), and 3 from Paraguay (n = 15). A comparison of wing centroid size across the 21 populations showed significant differences. Canonical Variate Analysis (CVA) revealed significant differences in wing shape between the populations from Argentina, Bolivia, and Paraguay, although there was a considerable overlap, especially among the Argentinian populations. Well-structured populations were observed for the Bolivian and Paraguayan groups. Two analyses were performed to assess the association between wing size and shape, geographic and climatic variables: multiple linear regression analysis (MRA) for size and Partial Least Squares (PLS) regression for shape. The MRA showed a significant general model fit. Six temperature-related variables, one precipitation-related variable, and the latitude showed significant associations with wing size. The PLS analysis revealed a significant correlation between wing shape with latitude, longitude, temperature-related, and rainfall-related variables. Wing size and shape in T. infestans populations varied across geographic distribution. Our findings demonstrate that geographic and climatic variables significantly influence T. infestans wing morphology.

Pervasive mimicry in flight behavior among aposematic butterflies

Flight was a key innovation in the adaptive radiation of insects. However, it is a complex trait influenced by a large number of interacting biotic and abiotic factors, making it difficult to unravel the evolutionary drivers. We investigate flight patterns in neotropical heliconiine butterflies, well known for mimicry of their aposematic wing color patterns. We quantify the flight patterns (wing beat frequency and wing angles) of 351 individuals representing 29 heliconiine and 9 ithomiine species belonging to ten color pattern mimicry groupings. For wing beat frequency and up wing angles, we show that heliconiine species group by color pattern mimicry affiliation. Convergence of down wing angles to mimicry groupings is less pronounced, indicating that distinct components of flight are under different selection pressures and constraints. The flight characteristics of the Tiger mimicry group are particularly divergent due to convergence with distantly related ithomiine species. Predator-driven selection for mimicry also explained variation in flight among subspecies, indicating that this convergence can occur over relatively short evolutionary timescales. Our results suggest that the flight convergence is driven by aposematic signaling rather than shared habitat between comimics. We demonstrate that behavioral mimicry can occur between lineages that have separated over evolutionary timescales ranging from <0.5 to 70 My.

Potential and progress of studying mountain biodiversity by means of butterfly genetics and genomics

Mountains are rich in biodiversity, and butterflies are species-rich and have a good ecological and evolutionary research foundation. This review addresses the potential and progress of studying mountain biodiversity using butterflies as a model. We discuss the uniqueness of mountain ecosystems, factors influencing the distribution of mountain butterflies, representative genetic and evolutionary models in butterfly research, and evolutionary studies of mountain biodiversity involving butterfly genetics and genomics. Finally, we demonstrate the necessity of studying mountain butterflies and propose future perspectives. This review provides insights for studying the biodiversity of mountain butterflies as well as a summary of research methods for reference.

Helmet Shape and Phylogeography of the Treehopper Membracis mexicana

Membracis mexicana (Hemiptera: Membracidae) is distributed in four biogeographic provinces of Mexico. Field observations indicate that there are different forms of this species, but the distribution of the phenotype and the genetic variation of this species have not been clarified. The aim of this study was to quantify the phenotypic and genetic variation of M. mexicana and determine whether the configuration of biogeographic provinces impacts the distribution of this variation. To achieve this, we analyzed 307 photographs using 19 landmarks and geometric morphometrics to quantify the phenotypic variation in helmets. We sequenced five molecular markers for 205 individuals to describe the phylogeographic pattern. As a result, we identified three morphological configurations of the helmet of M. mexicana and two genetic lineages. The morphotypes are (1) a large and wide helmet with small dorsal spots, (2) a small and narrow helmet with large dorsal spots, and (3) a small and narrow helmet with small spots. Genetic lineages are distributed in southeast and western Mexico. The western lineage corresponds to two helmet morphotypes (1 and 2) and the southeast lineage to morphotype 3. We found that the larger helmets correspond to the western lineage and are distributed in Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt and Pacific lowlands provinces, whereas the smallest helmets correspond to the southeast lineage and are present in the Veracruzan and Yucatan Peninsula provinces.

Scale-dependent environmental effects on phenotypic distributions in Heliconius butterflies

Identifying the relative importance of different mechanisms responsible for the emergence and maintenance of phenotypic diversity can be challenging, as multiple selective pressures and stochastic events are involved in these processes. Therefore, testing how environmental conditions shape the distribution of phenotypes can offer important insights on local adaptation, divergence, and speciation. The red-yellow Müllerian mimicry ring of Heliconius butterflies exhibits a wide diversity of color patterns across the Neotropics and is involved in multiple hybrid zones, making it a powerful system to investigate environmental drivers of phenotypic distributions. Using the distantly related Heliconius erato and Heliconius melpomene co-mimics and a multiscale distribution approach, we investigated whether distinct phenotypes of these species are associated with different environmental conditions. We show that Heliconius red-yellow phenotypic distribution is strongly driven by environmental gradients (especially thermal and precipitation variables), but that phenotype and environment associations vary with spatial scale. While co-mimics are usually predicted to occur in similar environments at large spatial scales, patterns at local scales are not always consistent (i.e., different variables are best predictors of phenotypic occurrence in different locations) or congruent (i.e., co-mimics show distinct associations with environment). We suggest that large-scale analyses are important for identifying how environmental factors shape broad mimetic phenotypic distributions, but that local studies are essential to understand the context-dependent biotic, abiotic, and historical mechanisms driving finer-scale phenotypic transitions.

Repeated genetic adaptation to altitude in two tropical butterflies

Repeated evolution can provide insight into the mechanisms that facilitate adaptation to novel or changing environments. Here we study adaptation to altitude in two tropical butterflies, Heliconius erato and H. melpomene, which have repeatedly and independently adapted to montane habitats on either side of the Andes. We sequenced 518 whole genomes from altitudinal transects and found many regions differentiated between highland (~ 1200 m) and lowland (~ 200 m) populations. We show repeated genetic differentiation across replicate populations within species, including allopatric comparisons. In contrast, there is little molecular parallelism between the two species. By sampling five close relatives, we find that a large proportion of divergent regions identified within species have arisen from standing variation and putative adaptive introgression from high-altitude specialist species. Taken together our study supports a role for both standing genetic variation and gene flow from independently adapted species in promoting parallel local adaptation to the environment.

Here, the authors study adaptation to altitude in 518 whole genomes from two species of tropical butterflies. They find repeated genetic differentiation within species, little molecular parallelism between these species, and introgression from closely related species, concluding that standing genetic variation promotes parallel local adaptation.

Condition dependence in biosynthesized chemical defenses of an aposematic and mimetic Heliconius butterfly

Aposematic animals advertise their toxicity or unpalatability with bright warning coloration. However, acquiring and maintaining chemical defenses can be energetically costly, and consequent associations with other important traits could shape chemical defense evolution. Here, we have tested whether chemical defenses are involved in energetic trade-offs with other traits, or whether the levels of chemical defenses are condition dependent, by studying associations between biosynthesized cyanogenic toxicity and a suite of key life-history and fitness traits in a Heliconius butterfly under a controlled laboratory setting. Heliconius butterflies are well known for the diversity of their warning color patterns and widespread mimicry and can both sequester the cyanogenic glucosides of their Passiflora host plants and biosynthesize these toxins de novo. We find energetically costly life-history traits to be either unassociated or to show a general positive association with biosynthesized cyanogenic toxicity. More toxic individuals developed faster and had higher mass as adults and a tendency for increased lifespan and fecundity. These results thus indicate that toxicity level of adult butterflies may be dependent on individual condition, influenced by genetic background or earlier conditions, with maternal effects as one strong candidate mechanism. Additionally, toxicity was higher in older individuals, consistent with previous studies indicating accumulation of toxins with age. As toxicity level at death was independent of lifespan, cyanogenic glucoside compounds may have been recycled to release resources relevant for longevity in these long-living butterflies. Understanding the origins and maintenance of variation in defenses is necessary in building a more complete picture of factors shaping the evolution of aposematic and mimetic systems.

Visible beyond Violet: How Butterflies Manage Ultraviolet

Ultraviolet (UV) means ‘beyond violet’ (from Latin ‘ultra’, meaning ‘beyond’), whereby violet is the colour with the highest frequencies in the ‘visible’ light spectrum. By ‘visible’ we mean human vision, but, in comparison to many other organisms, human visual perception is rather limited in terms of the wavelengths it can perceive. Still, this is why communication in the UV spectrum is often called hidden, although it most likely plays an important role in communicating various kinds of information among a wide variety of organisms. Since Silberglied’s revolutionary Communication in the Ultraviolet, comprehensive studies on UV signals in a wide list of genera are lacking. This review investigates the significance of UV reflectance (and UV absorption)—a feature often neglected in intra- and interspecific communication studies—mainly in Lepidoptera. Although the text focuses on various butterfly families, links and connections to other animal groups, such as birds, are also discussed in the context of ecology and the evolution of species. The basic mechanisms of UV colouration and factors shaping the characteristics of UV patterns are also discussed in a broad context of lepidopteran communication.

Divergence in Heliconius flight behaviour is associated with local adaptation to different forest structures

1. Micro-habitat choice plays a major role in shaping local patterns of biodiversity. In butterflies, stratification in flight height has an important role in maintaining community diversity. Despite its presumed importance, the role of behavioural shifts in early stages of speciation in response to differences in habitat structure is yet to be established. 2. Here, we investigated variation in flight height behaviour in two closely related Heliconius species, H. erato cyrbia and H. himera, which produce viable hybrids but are isolated across an environmental gradient, spanning lowland wet forest to high altitude scrub forest. Speciation in this pair is associated with strong assortative mating, but ecological isolation and local adaptation are also considered essential for complete reproductive isolation. 3. We quantified differences in flight height and forest structure across the environmental gradient and test the importance of resource distribution in explaining flight behaviour. We then use common garden experiments to test whether differences in flight height reflect individual responses to resource distribution or genetically determined shifts in foraging behaviour. 4. We found that the two species fly at different heights in the wild, and demonstrate that this can be explained by differences in the vertical distribution of plant resources. In both the wild and captivity, H. himera choose to fly lower and feed at lower positions, closely mirroring differences in resource availability in the wild. 5. Given expectations that foraging efficiency contributes to survival and reproductive success, we suggest that foraging behaviour may reflect local adaptation to divergent forest structures. Our results highlight the potential role of habitat-dependent divergence in behaviour during the early stages of speciation.

Environmental Drivers of Diversification and Hybridization in Neotropical Butterflies

Studying how the environment shapes current biodiversity patterns in species rich regions is a fundamental issue in biogeography, ecology, and conservation. However, in the Neotropics, the study of the forces driving species distribution and richness, is mostly based on vertebrates and plants. In this study, we used 54,392 georeferenced records for 46 species and 1,012 georeferenced records for 38 interspecific hybrids of the Neotropical Heliconius butterflies to investigate the role of the environment in shaping their distribution and richness, as well as their geographic patterns of phylogenetic diversity and phylogenetic endemism. We also evaluated whether niche similarity promotes hybridization in Heliconius. We found that these insects display five general distribution patterns mostly explained by precipitation and isothermality, and to a lesser extent, by altitude. Interestingly, altitude plays a major role as a predictor of species richness and phylogenetic diversity, while precipitation explains patterns of phylogenetic endemism. We did not find evidence supporting the role of the environment in facilitating hybridization because hybridizing species do not necessarily share the same climatic niche despite some of them having largely overlapping geographic distributions. Overall, we confirmed that, as in other organisms, high annual temperature, a constant supply of water, and spatio-topographic complexity are the main predictors of diversity in Heliconius. However, future studies at large scale need to investigate the effect of microclimate variables and ecological interactions.

Genomics of altitude-associated wing shape in two tropical butterflies

Understanding how organisms adapt to their local environment is central to evolution. With new whole-genome sequencing technologies and the explosion of data, deciphering the genomic basis of complex traits that are ecologically relevant is becoming increasingly feasible. Here, we studied the genomic basis of wing shape in two Neotropical butterflies that inhabit large geographical ranges. Heliconius butterflies at high elevations have been shown to generally have rounder wings than those in the lowlands. We reared over 1,100 butterflies from 71 broods of H. erato and H. melpomene in common-garden conditions and showed that wing aspect ratio, that is, elongatedness, is highly heritable in both species and that elevation-associated wing aspect ratio differences are maintained. Genome-wide associations with a published data set of 666 whole genomes from across a hybrid zone, uncovered a highly polygenic basis to wing aspect ratio variation in the wild. We identified several genes that have roles in wing morphogenesis or wing aspect ratio variation in Drosophila flies, making them promising candidates for future studies. There was little evidence for molecular parallelism in the two species, with only one shared candidate gene, nor for a role of the four known colour pattern loci, except for optix in H. erato. Thus, we present the first insights into the heritability and genomic basis of within-species wing aspect ratio in two Heliconius species, adding to a growing body of evidence that polygenic adaptation may underlie many ecologically relevant traits.

CARACTERIZACIÓN GENÉTICA DE LA POBLACIÓN DE Heliconius sara (Nymphalidae) EN LA ISLA GORGONA, COLOMBIA

La estructura genética de poblaciones de mariposas con distribución en islas y sus pares continentales ha sido poco documentada para el neotrópico. Este estudio presenta la caracterización de una población de Heliconius sara con distribución en la Isla Gorgona, ubicada en la región del Pacífico Oriental Colombiano. Para esto se examinaron secuencias parciales de un marcador mitocondrial incluyendo información obtenida del GenBank. Se comparó la diversidad y estructura genética con sus conespecíficos continentales y también con congéneres, con los que comparte un ancestro común cercano en el clado Sapho-Sara. Para el análisis de diversidad y estructura genética se realizó un análisis molecular de varianza. Este análisis muestra que la distancia entre la población de la isla y sus pares en el continente es consistente con la variación intraespecífica observada en otras especies del género Heliconius. Para la reconstrucción de la genealogía y datación reciente en el Pleistoceno superior del grupo monofilético de secuencias de H. sara, se realizó un análisis de inferencia bayesiana, así como una de máxima verosimilitud. Del análisis demográfico se seleccionó un modelo histórico de flujo asimétrico desde la isla hacia el continente que sugiere baja resistencia de la discontinuidad geográfica a la dispersión de esta mariposa diurna desde la isla. Este es el primer estudio en examinar un posible evento de aislamiento de una población insular de mariposas en Colombia.

Microclimate buffering and thermal tolerance across elevations in a tropical butterfly

Microclimatic variability in tropical forests plays a key role in shaping species distributions and their ability to cope with environmental change, especially for ectotherms. Nonetheless, currently available climatic datasets lack data from the forest interior and, furthermore, our knowledge of thermal tolerance among tropical ectotherms is limited. We therefore studied natural variation in the microclimate experienced by tropical butterflies in the genus Heliconius across their Andean range in a single year. We found that the forest strongly buffers temperature and humidity in the understorey, especially in the lowlands, where temperatures are more extreme. There were systematic differences between our yearly records and macroclimate databases (WorldClim2), with lower interpolated minimum temperatures and maximum temperatures higher than expected. We then assessed thermal tolerance of 10 Heliconius butterfly species in the wild and found that populations at high elevations had significantly lower heat tolerance than those at lower elevations. However, when we reared populations of the widespread H. erato from high and low elevations in a common-garden environment, the difference in heat tolerance across elevations was reduced, indicating plasticity in this trait. Microclimate buffering is not currently captured in publicly available datasets, but could be crucial for enabling upland shifting of species sensitive to heat such as highland Heliconius Plasticity in thermal tolerance may alleviate the effects of global warming on some widespread ectotherm species, but more research is needed to understand the long-term consequences of plasticity on populations and species.

Structures related to pheromone storage in alar androconia and the female abdominal scent gland of Heliconius erato phyllis, Heliconius ethilla narcaea, and Heliconius besckei (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Heliconiinae)

We describe the morphology of alar androconia and the female abdominal scent gland of Heliconius erato phyllis, Heliconius ethilla narcaea, and Heliconius besckei. Androconial scales of Heliconius, which are arranged in overlapping wing bands, release pheromones during courtship, probably through vibratory movements of male wings over the female to induce her to mate. An antiaphrodisiac is produced by glands located in the valves of the male and is transferred during copulation to the yellow dorsal abdominal sac present in the virgin female, causing this sac to emit a scent that reduces the attractiveness of the female for courtship with other males. Stereomicroscopy, SEM, and TEM analyses were conducted to describe the morphology of the internal and external scales and the external abdominal scent sac. The findings revealed different sizes of external androconial scales and an internal group of porous structural vesicles that are probably related to the preservation of internal space, reception and storage of secretions, and elimination of volatiles when the male is actively involved in courtship. Translucent projections on the female abdominal scent sac create open reservoirs for the reception, storage, and emission of antiaphrodisiac volatiles along with stink clubs. Male valve denticles vary in form and probably attach securely to the female sac during mating, thus ensuring secretion transfer. These features are discussed in the context of a comparative analysis.