BENGALURU: A new study has thrown light on many interesting aspects of butterflies’ adaptation and evolution processes. Researchers from the National Centre of Biological Sciences (NCBS) have found that butterflies that have evolved to make use of mimicry evolve faster than the species that don’t make use of mimicry.
The study was undertaken by three researchers from NCBS, Dipendra Nath Basu, Vaishali Bhaumik and advisor Prof Krushnamegh Kunte, who studied several species of butterflies and their imitative traits in the Western Ghats in Karnataka.
The findings were categorised into three -- model species (those that are toxic to predators), Batesian mimicry species (those that evolved traits of unpalatable species to avoid predators) and non-mimetic species (those that are closely related to Batesian mimics but did not evolve mimicry trait).
Batesian mimics adapt to avoiding predators by evolving similar wing colour patterns and flight behaviours. Interestingly, they found that the mimicking species of butterfly have evolved faster than the non-mimetic species, but the model species evolved at an even faster rate.
Analyses revealed that not only had colour patterns evolved at a much faster rate, but that members of mimetic communities had evolved at a faster rate than their close relatives. Butterflies exhibit a wide range of colours and colour patterns, suggesting that the genetic architecture underlying wing patterns and colour pigments are relatively malleable and susceptible to change, the researchers said.
The researchers are now planning to study species of butterflies in older biological communities in North East India and South East Asia to see if the rate of evolution is similar in these communities as compared to the young communities they studied in the Western Ghats. “The hope is that this research will reveal how species diversified and bio-diversity flourished in the Indian tropic,” they said.