Work

Different ommochrome pigment mixtures enable sexually dimorphic Batesian mimicry in disjunct populations of the common palmfly butterfly, Elymnias hypermnestra

Year: 2018

Type: article

Abstract: With varied, brightly patterned wings, butterflies have been the focus of much work on the evolution and development of phenotypic novelty. However, the chemical structures of wing pigments from few butterfly species have been identified. We characterized the orange wing pigments of female Elymnias hypermnestra butterflies (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Satyrinae) from two Southeast Asian populations. This species is a sexually dimorphic Batesian mimic of several model species. Females are polymorphic: in some populations, females are dark, resemble conspecific males, and mimic Euploea spp. In other populations, females differ from males and mimic orange Danaus spp. Using LC-MS/MS, we identified nine ommochrome pigments: six from a population in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and five compounds from a population in Bali, Indonesia. Two ommochromes were found in both populations, and only two of the nine compounds have been previously reported. The sexually dimorphic Thai and Balinese populations are separated spatially by monomorphic populations in peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, and Sumatra, suggesting independent evolution of mimetic female wing pigments in these disjunct populations. These results indicate that other butterfly wing pigments remain to be discovered.

Source: PLoS ONE

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0202465

Authors: Silvio Panettieri, Erisa Gjinaj, George John, David J. Lohman

Institutions: The Graduate Center, CUNY, City College of New York, City University of New York, National Museum of the Philippines

Language: English

Topic: Lepidoptera: Biology and Taxonomy

Subfield: Genetics

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,382