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Müllerian mimicry in Neotropical butterflies: One mimicry ring to bring them all, and in the jungle bind them
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Müllerian mimicry in Neotropical butterflies: One mimicry ring to bring them all, and in the jungle bind them
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Paper
Müllerian mimicry in Neotropical butterflies: One mimicry ring to bring them all, and in the jungle bind them
2025
Overview
Understanding the mechanisms underlying species distributions and coexistence is essential to predict and prevent the impacts of global change, particularly in biodiversity hotspots. However, the effects of biotic interactions may be challenging to investigate at large spatial scales. Leveraging well-characterized Müllerian mimetic systems in Neotropical butterflies, we investigated spatial patterns of mutualistic mimetic interactions within and between two tribes of aposematic Nymphalid butterflies: the Heliconiini (Heliconiinae) and the Ithomiini (Danainae). Despite 85 My of independent evolutionary histories, many species share similar warning wing patterns across the Neotropics. In this study we show that both tribes form similar biodiversity hotspots with a high prevalence of rare species and mimetic patterns in the tropical Andes. However, we reveal a higher relative richness of heliconiine butterflies than ithomiines in the Amazon basin contrasting with the Andean concentration of ithomiine diversity. Despite this difference in broadscale diversity patterns, we also document large-scale spatial associations among phenotypically similar species within and between tribes, thereby providing new empirical evidence for Fritz Müller's historical model of mutualistic mimicry at a continental scale. Furthermore, comparative phylogenetic analyses suggest that co-mimetic species within and between tribes have converged towards similar climatic niches as a response to selection favoring co-occurrence. Our findings illustrate the strength of mutualistic interactions in shaping biodiversity patterns at continental scale and in supporting niche convergence even across millions of years of evolution. Critically, it also emphasizes the pervasive vulnerability of mimetic communities, bound by positive interactions, to disassembly induced by climate change.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.Footnotes* https://github.com/EddiePerochon/Heliconiini_Diversity* https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14765685* https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10906853* https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10903661* https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10903197
Publisher
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press,Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Subject
