Selection on size has generated distinctive paired wing flight systems for butterfly flight and migration
Year: 2023
Type: preprint
Abstract: Butterfly migration across great distances is testimony to their impressive aeronautical skills. Wing size and shape are two key determinants of flight performance, and in butterflies, the specific configuration of forewings to hindwings including the overlapping area between them can have profound effects on overall size and shape. Here we use quantitative morphometrics to analyze the wing size, shape, and flight performance of 190 exemplar species representing a tribal-level phylogeny of Papilionoidea. We identify three morphological ‘flight systems’ that are characterized by these fore- and hindwing configurations (small [beating], medium, and large [gliding]), and our data suggest that the emergence of these systems coincided with periods of paleoclimatic upheaval. A higher proportion of migratory species have wings characteristic of gliders, and their degree of host specialization appears to be more flexible than that of counterparts with beating wings.
Source: Research Square
Authors: Richard Rabideau Childers, Liming Cai, Shawan Chowdhury, James Crall, Mark Cornwall, Rachel Hawkins Sipe, Crystal Maier, Sarah Maunsell, Gerard Talavera, Cheng-Chia Tsai, Katherine Angier, Vijay Barve, Evan Dankowicz, Jomar Hinolan, Micael Itliong, Mark Arcebal Naive, Gunnar Johnson, Francisco Matos, Valentina Morgan, David Plotkin, Mary Salcedo, Vaughn Shirey, Kimberly Vermilya, Jalen Winstanley, Amy Wu, Robert Guralnick, Akito Kawahara, David Lohman, Leslie Ries, Edward Soucy, Roger Vila, Nanfang Yu, Naomi Pierce, Wei-Ping Chan
Institutions: Harvard University, The University of Texas at Austin, The University of Queensland, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Columbia University, University of Florida, National Museum of the Philippines, City University of New York, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Cornell University, Georgetown University, Albany Medical College, City College of New York, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Institut de Biologia Evolutiva
Language: English
Subfield: Genetics
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: National Science Foundation
OpenAlex ID: W6957670575