Feb.
8, 2013 — A central question in evolutionary biology is what causes the
diversity of appearance seen in animals of the same species? Diversity is the
raw material evolution has to act on, and this is why it is important to study
the processes causing diversity. However, organisms that possess warning
signals telling that they are unpalatable are not really expected to have very
diverse forms of coloration. Such organisms are known as
"aposematic," and a similar looking coloration which acts as a
warning signal is a way to make sure that potential predators will recognize
and avoid them. It is especially interesting to take a look at the cause of
diversity in the appearance of aposematic species because it is not predicted.
To
probe mechanisms that cause diversity in the appearance of wood tiger moths,
researchers from the Centre of Excellence in Biological Interactions at the
University of Jyväskylä, Finland, studied how melanization in aposematic male
wood tiger moths varied across Europe. They observed that male wood tiger moths
were darker in the Alps and also in Northern Finland. Some previous work on
other species indicated that more melanized butterflies and moths might have
better ability to warm up more efficiently.
"Warming
up in places like the Alps and Northern Finland is probably pretty important if
you are a male moth trying to fly around to find the females," says
researcher Robert Hegna.
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