Adelpha butterflies are an exceptionally diverse group of butterflies ranging across South America into North America, with over 200 species and subspecies. Explanation for the high diversity of these butterflies involves the relationships with their larval host plants. As a whole the group is documented as using over 20 families of plants, with the Coffee family (Rubiaceae) being especially important. This plant family is one of the most diverse flowering plant families and could contribute to Adelpha diversity by adaptions to use the rich host plant diversity. A related yet distinct hypothesis is that Adelpha gain noxious chemicals from Rubiaceae plants which protects them from predators, and allows them to proliferate through color pattern changes advertising the protection. Our collaborative work on mimicry among Adelpha species, including their relatives (i.e. Limenitis), involves complex dynamics of frequency dependence (Finkbeiner et al 2018, Kristiansen et al 2018), and we've shown in California that mimic abundance tracks the model at small spatial scales (Prusa & Hill 2021).
|