Evolution of adaptive radiations in butterflies
Having established an African butterfly, Bicyclus anynana, as a model organism for research on evolutionary genetics, phenotypic plasticity, ecology and 'evo-devo', my new team is researching how our extensive knowledge of the biology of this organism can help us to understand three parallel radiations of some 300 related species of mycalesine butterflies in the Old World Tropics. Key traits are being mapped on to phylogenetic reconstructions.
Keywords
Evolutionary genetics / morphological evolution / developmental constraints / artificial selection / adaptive radiation