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2. The association between wing morphology and dispersal is sex-specific in the glanville fritillary butterfly Melitaea cinxia (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae)
- Creator:
- Breuker, Casper J., Brakefield, Paul M., and Gibbs, Melanie
- Type:
- article, model:article, and TEXT
- Subject:
- Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae, glanville fritillary, Melitaea cinxia, dispersal, wing shape, body morphology, individual quality, fluctuating asymmetry, wing aspect ratio, wing loading, and sexual dimorphism
- Language:
- English
- Description:
- 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.
- Rights:
- http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/ and policy:public