Ecotypic differentiation matters for latitudinal variation in energy metabolism and flight performance in a butterfly under climate change.

ABSTRACT: Life histories of organisms may vary with latitude as they experience different thermal constraints and challenges. This geographic, intraspecific variation could be of significance for range dynamics under climate change beyond edge-core comparisons. In this study, we did a reciprocal transplant experiment between the temperature-regimes of two latitudes with an ectotherm insect, examining the effects on energy metabolism and flight performance. Pararge aegeria expanded its ecological niche from cool woodland (ancestral) to warmer habitat in agricultural landscape (novel ecotype). Northern males had higher standard metabolic rates than southern males, but in females these rates depended on their ecotype. Southern males flew for longer than northern ones. In females, body mass-corrected fl

SUBMITTER: Van Dyck H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5109404 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature