Why are butterfly wings colorful?

Contributed by: Adriana Darielle Mejía Briscoe  (she/hers/ella) Twitter: @AdrianaBriscoe

 

Keywords: Animals, Behavior, Behavioral Ecology, Central America, Communication, European, Evolution, Evolutionary processes, Field, Fundamental research, Genetics, Indigenous, Latino/a/x, Mexican American, Native American, Natural selection, North America, Organismal biology, Physiology, Rainforest, Sexual selection, Under-represented minority, Woman

 

Slides

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View and download in google slides here.

 

Resources

This research is in review to be published. You can learn more about Adriana’s research at her website here.

There is a Data Nugget activity about this research.

Notes

Slide 1: Researcher’s Background

Adriana Darielle Mejía Briscoe is a professor at the University of California – Irvine. With members of her lab, she studies physiological and behavioral traits in butterflies, focusing on proteins that impact color vision and wing coloration, to examine how natural selection changes the way proteins work.

PB: Why did you become a biologist?
ADMB: I knew that becoming a scientist would allow me to live a life filled with curiosity and wonder and that I would never grow bored with my job.

PB: What is your favorite part about your job?
ADMB: I enjoy the social dimension of being a scientist, of being part of a community of knowledge-seekers working as a team to tackle scientific questions. I enjoy seeing my students succeed in this profession.

PB: What obstacles have you overcome to get where you are?
ADMB: Few graduates from my high school in south Colton, California went to university, so as a college student I was worried that I wasn’t prepared to do science or, worse, that somehow I wasn’t intrinsically smart enough. I now recognize this as having a fixed mindset and that with a growth mindset, it’s possible to push through one’s own fears to learn new and challenging subjects. Then there is the hurt that comes from being told, as a minority student (I identify as Mexican American with European, Indigenous Mexican and Native American ancestry), that any academic recognition you do receive is because you are a minority. What has helped me overcome that hurt is recognizing that that kind of experience is a form of “know-your-place aggression”, a term coined by the American literature scholar and cultural critic Koritha Mitchell.

PB: What advice do you have for aspiring biologists?
ADMB: Since science is a social enterprise, it is good to develop a skill that you are known for that other people might not have so you get invited to collaborate on a variety of projects.

PB: Do you feel that any dimension of your identity is invisible or under-represented/marginalized in STEM?
ADMB: Yes

PB: Can you elaborate on your answer above?
ADMB: I live in California, a state with 55% of K-12 students who are Latino, but the representation of Latinos, especially those educated within California, continues to be low in academia overall and in STEM fields in particular (2-5% in my field). To me this suggests that as a society we are either failing to educate all our youth or are failing to provide resources and opportunities for our young people which will permit them access to careers in STEM. I believe that poverty and extreme wealth inequality continue to be significant barriers to entry into the sciences.

 

Slide 2: Research Overview

Take home message of study

The coloration and pattern of colors on butterfly wings can serve to warn predators of their toxicity or to attract mates. These signals are important for determining ecological interactions and may have arose through natural selection or sexual selection for coloration and patterns. Adriana and her colleagues wanted to know whether color alone or color pattern together deter predators or attract mates.

Study system

The red postman butterfly (Heliconius erato, top right) lives in rainforests in Mexico, Central America, and South America. This species has a mix of red, yellow, and black colors on its wings, but the patterns vary a lot depending on their location. For example, one variant has a red bar on the forewings and a yellow bar on its hind wings while another variant has red rays on the hindwings and a yellow bar on the forewings. The bottom panel of images shows the three variations of clay model butterflies that the researchers used in this study. Right: color with a local pattern; Middle: no color with a local pattern; Left: color with a non-local pattern.

 

Slide 3: Key Research Points

Main figure

This figure compares the three model types – (a) colored wing consistent with a local pattern, (b) black and white with the local pattern, and (c) color that has a non-local pattern. The clay models that had the same color and pattern as the local butterflies saw less bird predator attacks and were more likely to be approached by a male butterfly (for mating). The black and white models had the highest predator attacks and the least probability of attracting a mate.

Societal Relevance

It can be important to understand the ecological and evolutionary components behind the growth of populations (mating) and factors that threaten species (predators). Conservation ecology uses this type of information to understand ecological interactions that can help species at risk.