Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The association between wing morphology and dispersal is sex-specific in the glanville fritillary butterfly Melitaea cinxia (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae)

2007; Institute of Entomology; Volume: 104; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.14411/eje.2007.064

1802-8829

Casper J. Breuker, Paul M. Brakefield, Melanie Gibbs,

Morphological variations and asymmetry

We examined whether dispersal was associated with body and wing morphology and individual quality, and whether such an association was sex-specific, in the Glanville fritillary butterfly Melitaea cinxia (L.) in Paldiski on the north coast of Estonia.Body weight, size and shape of both fore-and hindwing, wing aspect ratio and wing loading were used as measures of body and wing morphology.Fluctuating asymmetry (FA) of wing shape was used as a measure of individual quality.Males and females did not differ in dispersal rates, despite large differences in overall morphology and FA.Females had a significantly higher wing loading and aspect ratio, but a lower FA than males.Females, but not males, that dispersed differed in forewing shape from those that did not disperse.The sex-specifity of the covariation between dispersal and forewing shape is most probably due to wing shape being associated with different life-history traits in both sexes, resulting in different selection pressures on wing shape in each of the sexes.