Abstract

In general, butterfly ventral hind wing eyespots are considered to play a role in predator–prey interactions. These eyespots are prominent wing pattern elements in Brassolini butterflies, and they vary in size, position, and number across taxa. Female Caligo Hübner, 1819 (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae) appear to use the large eyespots of lekking males as a mate-locating cue, but female Opsiphanes Doubleday, 1849 (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae) do not because males patrol to find mates. These behaviors led us to predict that male Caligo should have larger eyespots than females, but eyespot size would not differ between sexes in Opsiphanes. Our analyses supported these predictions. As displacement of the eyespots to the center of the wing might make them more conspicuous, we asked if eyespot position and size covaried across the Brassolini phylogeny. While we found a positive association between position and size, the relationship of these two variables contained significant phylogenetic signal. Two Brassolini species show strong sexual dimorphism where females converge on the color pattern of sympatric species of Caligo. Their ventral hind wing eyespots are much larger than those of close relatives, approximating those of Caligo, and further reinforcing the importance of ventral hind wing eyespots as a visual signal in this group of butterflies. Importantly, our results suggest that, in addition to antipredation defense, ventral hind wing eyespots can function in mating activities, and consequently they might be evolving under both natural and sexual selection in Caligo butterflies.

中文翻译：

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Caligo蝴蝶的后翅眼点在交配行为和反掠食者防御中都起作用吗？（鳞翅目，y科）

摘要

通常，蝴蝶腹后翅眼点被认为在捕食者与猎物的相互作用中起作用。这些眼点是Brassolini蝴蝶中突出的机翼图案元素，并且在整个分类单元中大小，位置和数量均不同。雌性CaligoHübner，1819年（鳞翅目，N蝶科）似乎使用了较大的斑点，作为寻找伴侣的线索，但雌性Opsiphanes Doubleday，1849年（鳞翅目，N蝶科）并不因为雄性巡逻来寻找伴侣。这些行为使我们预测，男性Caligo的眼点应该比女性大，但是在Opsiphanes中，性别之间的眼点大小不会有所不同。我们的分析支持了这些预测。由于眼点到机翼中心的位移可能会使它们更加明显，因此我们询问了眼点的位置和大小在整个Brassolini系统发育中是否共变。虽然我们发现位置和大小之间存在正相关，但是这两个变量之间的关系包含显着的系统发生信号。两种布拉索里尼（Brassolini）物种表现出强烈的两性异性，雌性聚集在Caligo同胞物种的颜色模式上。他们的腹后翅眼点比近亲大得多，接近Caligo的眼点，并进一步增强了腹侧后翼眼点作为这组蝴蝶的视觉信号的重要性。重要的是，我们的研究结果表明，除了抗捕食防御外，腹侧后翼眼点还可以在交配活动中发挥作用，因此，根据Caligo蝴蝶的自然选择和性选择，它们可能正在进化。