Species specificity and intraspecific variation in the chemical profiles of Heliconius butterflies across a large geographic range. Issue 9 (3rd April 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Darragh, Kathy; Montejo‐Kovacevich, Gabriela; Kozak, Krzysztof M.; Morrison, Colin R.; Figueiredo, Clarisse M. E.; Ready, Jonathan S.; Salazar, Camilo; Linares, Mauricio; Byers, Kelsey J. R. P.; Merrill, Richard M.; McMillan, W. Owen; Schulz, Stefan; Jiggins, Chris D.
• Is Part Of: Ecology and evolution. Volume 10:Issue 9(2020)
• Page Start: 3895
• Page End: 3918
• Publication Date: 2020-04-03
• Subjects: chemical ecology -- Lepidoptera -- mate choice -- pheromones -- reproductive isolation -- signaling; Ecology -- Periodicals; Evolution -- Periodicals; 577.05
• DOI: 10.1002/ece3.6079
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2045-7758

Abstract

Abstract: In many animals, mate choice is important for the maintenance of reproductive isolation between species. Traits important for mate choice and behavioral isolation are predicted to be under strong stabilizing selection within species; however, such traits can also exhibit variation at the population level driven by neutral and adaptive evolutionary processes. Here, we describe patterns of divergence among androconial and genital chemical profiles at inter‐ and intraspecific levels in mimetic Heliconius butterflies. Most variation in chemical bouquets was found between species, but there were also quantitative differences at the population level. We found a strong correlation between interspecific chemical and genetic divergence, but this correlation varied in intraspecific comparisons. We identified "indicator" compounds characteristic of particular species that included compounds already known to elicit a behavioral response, suggesting an approach for identification of candidate compounds for future behavioral studies in novel systems. Overall, the strong signal of species identity suggests a role for these compounds in species recognition, but with additional potentially neutral variation at the population level . Abstract : In this study, we survey both inter‐ and intraspecific variation of both androconial and genital chemical profiles of male Heliconius across the Neotropics. We find that most variation in our samples is explained by species, with species‐specific compounds found consistently across a large geographic range, with additional, mainly quantitative, intraspecific variation. Overall, the strong signal of species identity suggests a role for these compounds in species recognition, but with additional neutral variation at the population level.