In the wild, butterfly wings often get torn by predators, plants, or mid-air clashes. In this study, we investigated how naturally occurring wing damage affects the flight performance in Morpho butterflies. While wing damage is a common feature of insect life, its location and distribution across the wings, and the functional consequences, are poorly understood.
Our study revealed that damage to the leading edge of the forewings, particularly near the wingtip, significantly reduced flight speed and gliding ability. In contrast, damage along the wing margins, which was the most frequent in wild specimens, had little impact on flight. Damage to the hindwings had a more modest but specific effect: a reduction in flight height, suggesting a differentiated role between forewings and hindwings in supporting flight dynamics.
This study doesn’t just explain how butterflies cope with injury. It offers clues about evolutionary pressures affecting wing shape. Parts of the wing essential to flight may be under strong natural selection to resist damage — while others, less vital, are freer to evolve, perhaps under the effect of other selective demands, like predator distraction or display.
Full article:
Le Roy et al. (2019) Journal of Experimental Biology 222(16), jeb204057.