ArticleBMC evolutionary biology2017
Longwing (Heliconius) butterflies combine a restricted set of pigmentary and structural coloration mechanisms.
Article in BMC evolutionary biology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 46 citations in OpenAlex.
- Nanostructural Influence on Optical and Thermal Properties of Butterfly Wing Scales Across Forest Vertical Strata.Materials (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- The actin cytoskeleton plays multiple roles in structural colour formation in butterfly wing scales.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Butterfly blues and greens caused by subtractive colour mixing of carotenoids and bile pigments.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2024Article
- Oviposition behavior is not affected by ultraviolet light in a butterfly with sexually-dimorphic expression of a UV-sensitive opsin.Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- The wing scales of the mother-of-pearl butterfly, Protogoniomorpha parhassus, are thin film reflectors causing strong iridescence and polarization.The Journal of experimental biology · 2021Article
- Microstructural design for mechanical-optical multifunctionality in the exoskeleton of the flower beetleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
- Genetic switch in UV response of mimicry-related pale-yellow colors in Batesian mimic butterfly,Science advances · 2021Article
- Coloration principles of the Great purple emperor butterfly (Sasakia charonda).Zoological letters · 2020Article
- Structural Diversity with Varying Disorder Enables the Multicolored Display in the Longhorn Beetle Sulawesiella rafaelae.iScience · 2020Article
- Structural color ineLife · 2020Article
- Infrared optical and thermal properties of microstructures in butterfly wings.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2020Article
- Bogong Moths Are Well Camouflaged by Effectively Decolourized Wing Scales.Frontiers in physiology · 2020Article
- Phenotypic variation inInterface focus · 2019Article
- The Only Blue Mimeresia (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae: Lipteninae) Uses a Color-Generating Mechanism Widely Applied by Butterflies.Journal of insect science (Online) · 2018Article
- Wing scale ultrastructure underlying convergent and divergent iridescent colours in mimeticJournal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2018Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundLongwing butterflies, Heliconius sp., also called heliconians, are striking examples of diversity and mimicry in butterflies. Heliconians feature strongly colored patterns on their wings, arising from wing scales colored by pigments and/or nanostructures, which serve as an aposematic signal.
resultsHere, we investigate the coloration mechanisms among several species of Heliconius by applying scanning electron microscopy, (micro)spectrophotometry, and imaging scatterometry. We identify seven kinds of colored scales within Heliconius whose coloration is derived from pigments, nanostructures or both. In yellow-, orange- and red-colored wing patches, both cover and ground scales contain wavelength-selective absorbing pigments, 3-OH-kynurenine, xanthommatin and/or dihydroxanthommatin. In blue wing patches, the cover scales are blue either due to interference of light in the thin-film lower lamina (e.g., H. doris) or in the multilayered lamellae in the scale ridges (so-called ridge reflectors, e.g., H. sara and H. erato); the underlying ground scales are black. In the white wing patches, both cover and ground scales are blue due to their thin-film lower lamina, but because they are stacked upon each other and at the wing substrate, a faint bluish to white color results. Lastly, green wing patches (H. doris) have cover scales with blue-reflecting thin films and short-wavelength absorbing 3-OH-kynurenine, together causing a green color.
conclusionsThe pigmentary and structural traits are discussed in relation to their phylogenetic distribution and the evolution of vision in this highly interesting clade of butterflies.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.