Evidence of attack deflection suggests adaptive evolution of wing tails in butterflies

Chotard, Ariane; Ledamoisel, Joséphine; Décamps, Thierry; Herrel, Anthony; Chaine, Alexis S.; Llaurens, Violaine; Debat, Vincent

doi:10.1101/2022.04.05.487106

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 45 publications

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“…Instead, these convergent species exhibit color patterns composed of contrasting black rays on a clear background and orange and blue patches on the hindwing close to the tails, such as in the convergent Papilio alexanor and Iphiclides podalirius. This kind of color patterns combined with hindwing tails may contribute to the deflection of predators away from the vital parts of the body (42). Such convergence in color pattern could thus be driven by predator cognitive bias and associated behavior but do not imply mutualistic or parasitic interactions between butterfly species.…”

Section: The Effect Of Sympatry On Phenotypic Convergence and Divergencementioning

confidence: 99%

Convergence in sympatric swallowtail butterflies reveals ecological interactions as a key driver of worldwide trait diversification

Puissant

Chotard

Condamine

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Ecological interactions may fuel phenotypic diversification in sympatric species. While competition can enhance trait divergence, other ecological interactions may promote convergence in sympatric species. Within butterflies, evolutionary convergences in wing color patterns have been reported between distantly-related species, especially in females from palatable species, where mimetic color patterns are promoted by predator communities shared with defended species living in sympatry. Wing color patterns are also often involved in species recognition in butterflies, and divergence in this trait has been reported in closely-related species living in sympatry as a result of reproductive character displacement. Here we investigate the effect of sympatry between species on the convergence vs. divergence of their wing color patterns in relation to phylogenetic distance, focusing on the iconic swallowtail butterflies (family Papilionidae). We developed a new unsupervised machine-learning-based method to estimate phenotypic distances among wing color patterns from 337 species allowing to finely quantify morphological diversity at global scale within and among species, allowing to compute pairwise phenotypic distances between sympatric and allopatric species pairs. We found that sympatry promoted strong convergence, while divergence in sympatry was less frequent and weaker. The effect of sympatry on convergence was stronger on females than males, suggesting that differential selective pressures acting on the two sexes drove sexual dimorphism. Our results highlight the significant effect of ecological interactions driven by predation pressures on trait diversification in Papilionidae and evidence the interaction between phylogenetic proximity and ecological interactions in sympatry acting on macroevolutionary patterns of phenotypic diversification.

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Section: The Effect Of Sympatry On Phenotypic Convergence and Divergencementioning

confidence: 99%

Convergence in sympatric swallowtail butterflies reveals ecological interactions as a key driver of worldwide trait diversification

Puissant

Chotard

Condamine

et al. 2023

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Evidence of attack deflection suggests adaptive evolution of wing tails in butterflies

et al. 2022

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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 (HW) tails in the swallowtail butterfly Iphiclides podalirius . In this species, HWs 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 standardized 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 HWs were struck more often than the rest of the body by birds. Finally, we characterized 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 HW tails and suggest that predation is an important selective driver of the evolution of wing tails and colour pattern in butterflies.

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Evidence of attack deflection suggests adaptive evolution of wing tails in butterflies

Cited by 2 publications

References 45 publications

Convergence in sympatric swallowtail butterflies reveals ecological interactions as a key driver of worldwide trait diversification

Convergence in sympatric swallowtail butterflies reveals ecological interactions as a key driver of worldwide trait diversification

Evidence of attack deflection suggests adaptive evolution of wing tails in butterflies

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