Morpho blue signal reduces individual predation by advertising their high escape ability, favoring resemblance between species living in the same locality. This led to the widespread wing pattern convergence of several blue-banded Morpho butterfly species with overlapping ranges of distribution (Llaurens et al., 2021). But does the convergence in wing color pattern among co-occuring Morpho species lead to heterospecific rivalry or courtship?
Using solar-powered dummy butterflies placed in the wild, we show that this morphological convergence induces interspecific behavioral interference, by triggering erroneous courtship and male-male competition. Genomic data nevertheless revealed a surprising strong genetic isolation between species despite these inter-specific interactions.
We performed a mark-recapture experiment and discovered a remarkable temporal divergence in flight activity among species, probably facilitating their coexistence and explaining their isolation. Hence, the convergence in morphology and divergence in phenology likely favor species coexistence by partitioning niche in different dimensions.
Full article:
Le Roy et al. (2021) Nature Communications 12(1), 7248.