Evolving while invading: rapid adaptive evolution in juvenile development time for a biological control organism colonizing a high-elevation environment.

ABSTRACT: We report evidence of adaptive evolution in juvenile development time on a decadal timescale for the cinnabar moth Tyria jacobaeae (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae) colonizing new habitats and hosts from the Willamette Valley to the Coast Range and Cascades Mountains in Oregon. Four lines of evidence reveal shorter egg to pupa juvenile development times evolved in the mountains, where cooler temperatures shorten the growing season: (i) field observations showed that the mountain populations have shorter phenological development; (ii) a common garden experiment revealed genetic determination of phenotypic differences in juvenile development time between Willamette Valley and mountain populations correlated with the growing season; (iii) a laboratory experiment rearing offspring from parental crosses

SUBMITTER: McEvoy PB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3407870 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature