Butterfly dichromatism primarily evolved via Darwin's, not Wallace's, model.

ABSTRACT: Sexual dimorphism is typically thought to result from sexual selection for elaborated male traits, as proposed by Darwin. However, natural selection could reduce expression of elaborated traits in females, as proposed by Wallace. Darwin and Wallace debated the origins of dichromatism in birds and butterflies, and although evidence in birds is roughly equal, if not in favor of Wallace's model, butterflies lack a similar scale of study. Here, we present a large-scale comparative phylogenetic analysis of the evolution of butterfly coloration, using all European non-hesperiid butterfly species (n = 369). We modeled evolutionary changes in coloration for each species and sex along their phylogeny, thereby estimating the rate and direction of evolution in three-dimensional color space usi

SUBMITTER: van der Bijl W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7719551 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature