ArticleNature communications2021
Convergent morphology and divergent phenology promote the coexistence of Morpho butterfly species.
Article in Nature communications, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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11 citing papers in PubMed, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- Repeated evolution of convergent iridescence in closely related species ofEvolution letters · 2026Article
- Reexamining Sexual and Species Recognition in Butterflies: The Partner-Hazard Space Framework.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Hot temperature during development alters iridescence inPNAS nexus · 2026Article
- Convergent iridescence and divergent chemical signals in sympatric sister-species of Amazonian butterflies.eLife · 2025Article
- Increased Evolutionary Rate in the Z chromosome of Sympatric and Allopatric Species of Morpho Butterflies.Genome biology and evolution · 2024Article
- Pervasive mimicry in flight behavior among aposematic butterflies.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Convergence in sympatric swallowtail butterflies reveals ecological interactions as a key driver of worldwide trait diversification.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Butterfly foraging is remarkably synchronous in an experimental tropical macrocosm.Biology letters · 2023Article
- The tempo and mode of character evolution in the assembly of mimetic communities.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Contrasting patterns of genetic and phenotypic divergence of two sympatric congeners,Frontiers in plant science · 2023Article
- Genome assembly of 3 Amazonian Morpho butterfly species reveals Z-chromosome rearrangements between closely related species living in sympatry.GigaScience · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The coexistence of closely-related species in sympatry is puzzling because ecological niche proximity imposes strong competition and reproductive interference. A striking example is the widespread wing pattern convergence of several blue-banded Morpho butterfly species with overlapping ranges of distribution. Here we perform a series of field experiments using flying Morpho dummies placed in a natural habitat. We show that similarity in wing colour pattern indeed leads to interspecific territoriality and courtship among sympatric species. In spite of such behavioural interference, demographic inference from genomic data shows that sympatric closely-related Morpho species are genetically isolated. Mark-recapture experiments in the two most closely-related species unravel a strong temporal segregation in patrolling activity of males. Such divergence in phenology reduces the costs of reproductive interference while simultaneously preserving the benefits of convergence in non-reproductive traits in response to common ecological pressures. Henceforth, the evolution of multiple traits may favour species diversification in sympatry by partitioning niche in different dimensions.
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