The evolution of insect body coloration under changing climates

Clusella‐Trullas, Susana; Nielsen, Matthew E.

doi:10.1016/j.cois.2020.05.007

Cited by 49 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 77 publications

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“…Although temperature had the highest independent effect on community weighted means from all environmental variables covarying with elevation (Supporting information), other factors than temperature may instead lead to the observed clines along an elevation. Elevation could filter towards more robust and long‐living species, usually associated with larger body size (Beck et al 2016), which could also affect color lightness, given that melanin production is linked to several life history traits (Clusella‐Trullas and Nielsen 2020). The differences in the two families with respect to their life histories, with most noctuid moths overwintering in the larval stage, whereas geometrid moths overwinter as pupae (Supporting information), could thus add to the difference in the observed trait patterns.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Adult noctuid moths forage on a higher number of nectar plants than geometrid moths (Supporting information), which could decrease the relative importance of larval host plants as a biotic factor for occurrence and abundance. However more rigorous conclusions of the mechanisms underlying body size and color lightness variation in insects and the effect of those variations on species distributions, are hampered by a lack of life‐history and ecological data as well as abundance data over longer times and higher temporal resolution (Clusella‐Trullas and Nielsen 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Dark organisms heat up faster than their light‐colored counterparts at a given level of solar irradiance (Watt 1968), ultimately leading to a fitness advantage in colder environments (‘thermal melanism hypothesis', Clusella Trullas et al 2007). Moreover, correlations between temperature and insect color lightness may be the product of pleiotropic linkages of color lightness to life history, which depends on temperature itself (Umbers et al 2013, Clusella‐Trullas and Nielsen 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Noctuid and geometrid moth assemblages show divergent elevational gradients in body size and color lightness

et al. 2021

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Previous macroecological studies have suggested that larger and darker insects are favored in cold environments and that the importance of body size and color for the absorption of solar radiation is not limited to diurnal insects. However, whether these effects hold true for local communities and are consistent across taxonomic groups and sampling years remains unexplored. This study examined the variations in body size and color lightness of the two major families of nocturnal moths, Geometridae and Noctuidae, along an elevational gradient of 700 m in Southern Germany. An assemblage‐based analysis was performed using community‐weighted means and a fourth‐corner analysis to test for variations in color and body size among communities as a function of elevation. This was followed by a species‐level analysis to test whether species occurrence and abundance along an elevation gradient were related to these traits, after controlling for host plant availability. In both 2007 and 2016, noctuid moth assemblages became larger and darker with increasing elevation, whereas geometrids showed an opposite trend in terms of color lightness and no clear trend in body size. In single species models, the abundance of geometrids, but not of noctuids, was driven by habitat availability. In turn, the abundance of dark‐colored noctuids, but not geometrids increased with elevation. While body size and color lightness affect insect physiology and the ability to cope with harsh conditions, divergent trait–environment relationships between both families underline that findings of coarse‐scale studies are not necessarily transferable to finer scales. Local abundance and occurrence of noctuids are shaped by morphological traits, whereas that of geometrids are rather shaped by local habitat availability, which can modify their trait–environment‐relationship. We discuss potential explanations such as taxon‐specific flight characteristics and the effect of microclimatic conditions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Noctuid and geometrid moth assemblages show divergent elevational gradients in body size and color lightness

et al. 2021

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“…All else being equal, body size relative to boundary layer thickness sets the thermal habitat diversity available to insects. Large insects may however have different body temperatures depending on their body coloration (Clusella‐Trullas & Nielsen, 2020; Kingsolver, 1983; Nielsen & Kingsolver, 2020), reflectance of near‐infrared radiation (Munro et al., 2019; Tsai et al., 2020), rate of evaporation (Toolson, 1987) and body posture in relation to the sun (Kingsolver, 1985). Larger arthropods thus probably have a larger menu of ecological and evolutionary ‘choices’ for adjusting realized body temperatures to their thermal performance curves and physiological limits.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Body size determines the thermal coupling between insects and plant surfaces

2021

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Most studies in global change biology predict biological impacts of warming from information on macroclimates. Most organisms, however, live in microhabitats with physical conditions which are decoupled to varying degrees from those in macroclimates depending partly on organism body size. Small ectotherms of a few millimetres in length live deep in surface boundary layers such that their heat budgets are dominated by different processes compared to larger ectotherms, whose bodies emerge from surface boundary layers. We therefore hypothesized that the body size relative to surface boundary layer thickness generates different patterns of body temperature variation for organisms in the same nominal habitats. We tested this hypothesis in a community of arthropods living on a subalpine plant by combining physical models to acquire high‐resolution time series of operative temperatures, thermal imaging to assess the strength of coupling between physical models or arthropod bodies and surrounding leaf temperatures, and a cross‐scale approach to infer the temperature distributions available to small ectotherms. The size of the physical model strongly influenced operative temperature dynamics: the bigger, the warmer. Small models were just a few degrees warmer than leaf surfaces, whereas large models deviated from leaf temperature by >10°C. We found similar patterns of body temperature of naturally occurring arthropods. Temperatures of small insects closely tracked leaf surface temperatures even in full sun, whereas larger insects were warmer than leaf surfaces. At the whole plant scale, the thermal diversity of leaf surfaces was high, especially in the sun, typically generating a range of microclimatic temperatures (for small insects) of >10°C. Larger insects instead could move between shaded and sunny portions of the whole plant to vary body temperatures by a larger extent. The bulk of animal biodiversity consists of small terrestrial arthropods, the majority of which are associated with plant surfaces at some point in their life cycles. The distribution of body sizes determines how much thermal diversity is available for behavioural thermoregulation, thereby contributing to their potential response to climate change. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

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“…For example, species with more variable colour patterns may have an advantage over monotypic species (Forsman et al ., 2016 ). However, some trade‐offs can be expected for traits like melanism, which also confer functions associated with immune responses or life histories (Clusella‐Trullas & Nielsen, 2020 ).…”

Section: Organismal Responsesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change effects on animal ecology: butterflies and moths as a case study

et al. 2021

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Butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera) are one of the most studied, diverse, and widespread animal groups, making them an ideal model for climate change research. They are a particularly informative model for studying the effects of climate change on species ecology because they are ectotherms that thermoregulate with a suite of physiological, behavioural, and phenotypic traits. While some species have been negatively impacted by climatic disturbances, others have prospered, largely in accordance with their diversity in life-history traits. Here we take advantage of a large repertoire of studies on butterflies and moths to provide a review of the many ways in which climate change is impacting insects, animals, and ecosystems. By studying these climate-based impacts on ecological processes of Lepidoptera, we propose appropriate strategies for species conservation and habitat management broadly across animals.

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The evolution of insect body coloration under changing climates

Cited by 49 publications

References 77 publications

Noctuid and geometrid moth assemblages show divergent elevational gradients in body size and color lightness

Noctuid and geometrid moth assemblages show divergent elevational gradients in body size and color lightness

Body size determines the thermal coupling between insects and plant surfaces

Climate change effects on animal ecology: butterflies and moths as a case study

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