Meeting Abstract

104.3  Tuesday, Jan. 7 08:30  The flight environment, behavior, and adaptive wing shape evolution in rainforest floor butterflies (Haeterini: Nymphalidae) CESPEDES, A.*; MATOS, M.; WAHLBERG, N.; DEVRIES, P.J.; Univ. of New Orleans; Biology Centre AS CR; Univ. of Turku ; Univ. of New Orleans acespede@uno.edu

Wing shape is influenced heavily by flight performance during ecologically relevant flight behaviors. Flapping and gliding are two common butterfly flight modes that possess conflicting demands on wing design, as there exists a trade-off between glide efficiency and force production. The Neotropical tribe, Haeterini, exhibits a rare flight mode wherein males in all but one of five genera glide near the forest floor. It is hypothesized that radiation to the forest floor has resulted in the evolution of this behavior and consequent evolution of wing shapes that meet the theoretical design requirements for gliding flight and the exploitation of ground effect, a phenomenon known to increase flight efficiency in biological fliers. Our previous results revealed that the pattern of wing shape evolution within the Haeterini suggests multiple parallel trends towards theoretically optimal wing shapes. For 545 individuals covering all species, we used landmark-based geometric morphometrics to measure fore- and hindwing shape, the range of shapes allowed by wing rotation, and the degree of sexual dimorphism within each species. To determine a model of wing shape evolution and reconstruct the macro-evolutionary processes resulting in the diversification of this tribe, we placed morphological data into a phylogenetic comparative framework, using newly developed methods to directly estimate shifts in selection regimes as well as diagnose the occurrence and extent of convergence in wing shape. In the context of the broader historical biogeography of the family Nymphalidae, we present a comprehensive model of adaptive wing shape evolution and diversification for the Haeterini.