Intra- and inter-individual variations in flight direction in a migratory butterfly co-vary with individual mobility

Larranaga, Nicolas; Baguette, Michel; Calvez, Olivier; Trochet, Audrey; Ducatez, Simon; Legrand, Delphine

doi:10.1242/jeb.082883

Cited by 13 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…The evolutionary ecology of dispersal has long been studied on butterflies and has generated many novel insights (Hanski et al , Schtickzelle et al , Stevens et al ). Among butterfly model species, the large white butterfly Pieris brassicae shows a natural variability in behavioral, physiological and morphological traits that are associated into a mobility syndrome (Ducatez et al , , Larranaga et al ). Some of these traits are dependent upon landscape properties and this relationship varies with sex (Ducatez et al ), which means that mobility is context‐ and condition‐dependent in this species.…”

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Ranking the ecological causes of dispersal in a butterfly

et al. 2014

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Dispersal, i.e. movements potentially leading to gene flow, is central in evolutionary ecology. Many factors can trigger dispersal, all linked to the social and/or the environmental context. Moreover, it is now widely demonstrated that phenotypes with contrasted dispersal abilities coexist within populations of a same species. The current challenge is to elucidate how social and environmental factors will influence the dispersal decision of individuals with distinct phenotypes. We have used the Metatron, a unique experimental mesocosm dedicated to the study of dispersal within fragmented landscapes, to analyze the relative and interactive roles played by ten potential dispersal triggers in experimental two‐patch metapopulations of butterflies. We demonstrate in our model species that some factors (flight performance and wing length) have direct effects on emigration decision, others act only through interactive effects (sex ratio), while a third class of factors presents both direct and interactive effects (weather conditions, habitat quality and sex). We also show that disperser and resident individuals have distinct behavioral and morphological attributes, revealing the existence of a dispersal syndrome. Finally, our results also suggest that the environmental context, and especially weather conditions and habitat quality, prevails over social factors and individual phenotypes in butterflies' decision to disperse. Our approach is applicable to many species facing medium to strong environmental fluctuations, and constitutes a new way to master the idiosyncrasy of the dispersal process. Our framework should also help prioritize the factors responsible for populations' spatial distribution, which is obviously crucial in the current era of global changes.

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Ranking the ecological causes of dispersal in a butterfly

et al. 2014

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“…In natural populations in the southern range of the distribution area of the species, the distribution of individual flight performance is clearly bimodal. Flight performance is associated with other behavioral traits like boldness or exploration, best flight performers being bolder and more explorative [53], and having higher consistency in flight direction after adult emergence [54]. Dispersal events in the metatron, an experimental setting designed to study experimental metapopulations, were also performed significantly more often by the best flight performers [47].…”

Section: Butterfliesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The pros and cons of applying the movement ecology paradigm for studying animal dispersal

2014

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Understanding how dispersal movements are motivated and executed is the core business of dispersal evolutionary ecology, which is an active research field in environmental sciences. However, recent advances in dispersal research have not yet been confronted to the movement ecology paradigm (MEP) that was introduced to unify the study of all types of movements of all organisms. Here we aim at doing this exercise to investigate if the MEP is sufficiently general to provide sound predictions on dispersal causes, modalities and consequences. We begin by briefly summarizing the main concepts of the MEP that are relevant to our analysis. A part of some examples, many studies focusing on animal movements share a common, two step procedures: (1) record movement paths, and (2) test post-hoc functional assumptions to identify the relationships between the four basic components listed above. Then we present some important results from dispersal evolutionary ecology research. Next we turn to two groups of model organisms (butterflies and lizards), in which dispersal has been thoroughly studied in the field for decades. These organisms have contrasted dispersal modes: the causes of dispersal are mainly related to the social context in lizards, whereas they are mainly dependent on the environmental context in butterflies. Lizards disperse most often once in their life soon after birth, whereas butterflies generally disperse all over their adult life. We investigate if and how the MEP provides an added value to the study of dispersal on these organisms. Although the MEP is in principle encapsulates almost every variation acting on movement, its ability to incorporate variation in anything else than pure movement trajectories appears to be mixed: dispersal is extremely phenotype-and context-dependent, which rends difficult the use of the MEP as an operational tool to incorporate variation across individuals and situations. We propose that a mixed approach combining the Eulerian and Lagrangian viewpoints could deal with this high dispersal variability. We conclude by providing perspectives for the integration of ecological and evolutionary processes affecting dispersal into the MEP that could increase its efficiency to study dispersal.

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“…Such distribution suggests that natural populations are composed of a mixture of dispersing and sedentary individuals (Ducatez et al ., ; Larranaga et al ., ). In this species, mobility measured as the time spent in flight under stressful conditions in laboratory conditions covaries with a suite of morphological, behavioral and physiological traits including wing morphology, exploratory behavior, flight direction at emergence and, importantly, dispersal (Ducatez et al ., , ; Larranaga et al ., ; Legrand et al ., , ). Mobility, exploration, and orientation are also consistent over time (Spieth et al ., ; Ducatez et al ., ; Larranaga et al ., ).…”

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confidence: 97%

Mobility affects copulation and oviposition dynamics in Pieris brassicae in seminatural cages

et al. 2018

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When, how often and for how long organisms mate can have strong consequences for individual fitness and are crucial aspects of evolutionary ecology. Such determinants are likely to be of even greater importance in monandrous species and species with short adult life stages. Previous work suggests that mobility, a key dispersal-related trait, may affect the dynamics of copulations, but few studies have investigated the impact of individual mobility on mating latency, copulation duration and oviposition latency simultaneously. In this paper, we monitored the copulation dynamics of 40 males and 40 females, as well as the oviposition dynamics of the females of the Large White butterfly Pieris brassicae, a facultative long-distance disperser butterfly. Individuals from a breeding were selected to create a uniform distribution of mobility and we recorded the timing, number and duration of all copulations in a semiexperimental system. We showed that mobility, measured as the time spent in flight under stressful conditions (a proxy of dispersal tendency), correlates with all aspects of copulation dynamics: mobile males and females mated earlier and for shorter periods than less mobile individuals. In turn, late mating females increased the time between copulation and oviposition. These results feed the previously described mobility syndrome of P. brassicae, involving morphological and physiological characters, with life-history traits. We suggest that the reduction of mating latency and copulation duration has an adaptive value in dispersing individuals, as their life expectancy might be shorter than that of sedentary individuals.

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Intra- and inter-individual variations in flight direction in a migratory butterfly co-vary with individual mobility

Cited by 13 publications

References 59 publications

Ranking the ecological causes of dispersal in a butterfly

Ranking the ecological causes of dispersal in a butterfly

The pros and cons of applying the movement ecology paradigm for studying animal dispersal

Mobility affects copulation and oviposition dynamics in Pieris brassicae in seminatural cages

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