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Sensory organ investment varies with body size and sex in the butterfly pieris napi

Moradinour, Zahra ; Wiklund, Christer ; Jie, Vun Wen ; Restrepo, Carlos E. ; Gotthard, Karl ; Miettinen, Arttu ; Perl, Craig D. LU and Baird, Emily (2021) In Insects 12(12).
Abstract

In solitary insect pollinators such as butterflies, sensory systems must be adapted for multiple tasks, including nectar foraging, mate-finding, and locating host-plants. As a result, the energetic investments between sensory organs can vary at the intraspecific level and even among sexes. To date, little is known about how these investments are distributed between sensory systems and how it varies among individuals of different sex. We performed a comprehensive allometric study on males and females of the butterfly Pieris napi where we measured the sizes and other parameters of sensory traits including eyes, antennae, proboscis, and wings. Our findings show that among all the sensory traits measured, only antenna and wing size have an... (More)

In solitary insect pollinators such as butterflies, sensory systems must be adapted for multiple tasks, including nectar foraging, mate-finding, and locating host-plants. As a result, the energetic investments between sensory organs can vary at the intraspecific level and even among sexes. To date, little is known about how these investments are distributed between sensory systems and how it varies among individuals of different sex. We performed a comprehensive allometric study on males and females of the butterfly Pieris napi where we measured the sizes and other parameters of sensory traits including eyes, antennae, proboscis, and wings. Our findings show that among all the sensory traits measured, only antenna and wing size have an allometric relationship with body size and that the energetic investment in different sensory systems varies between males and females. Moreover, males had absolutely larger antennae and eyes, indicating that they invest more energy in these organs than females of the same body size. Overall, the findings of this study reveal that the size of sensory traits in P. napi are not necessarily related to body size and raises questions about other factors that drive sensory trait investment in this species and in other insect pollinators in general.

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author
; ; ; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Allometry, Antenna, Body size, Eye, Pieris napi, Proboscis, Sensory system, Wing
in
Insects
volume
12
issue
12
article number
1064
publisher
MDPI AG
external identifiers
  • pmid:34940152
  • scopus:85120806674
ISSN
2075-4450
DOI
10.3390/insects12121064
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Publisher Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
id
a5504cc0-f54b-4535-8435-6b8e9b2e8713
date added to LUP
2022-01-19 08:52:37
date last changed
2024-06-17 02:48:13
@article{a5504cc0-f54b-4535-8435-6b8e9b2e8713,
  abstract     = {{<p>In solitary insect pollinators such as butterflies, sensory systems must be adapted for multiple tasks, including nectar foraging, mate-finding, and locating host-plants. As a result, the energetic investments between sensory organs can vary at the intraspecific level and even among sexes. To date, little is known about how these investments are distributed between sensory systems and how it varies among individuals of different sex. We performed a comprehensive allometric study on males and females of the butterfly Pieris napi where we measured the sizes and other parameters of sensory traits including eyes, antennae, proboscis, and wings. Our findings show that among all the sensory traits measured, only antenna and wing size have an allometric relationship with body size and that the energetic investment in different sensory systems varies between males and females. Moreover, males had absolutely larger antennae and eyes, indicating that they invest more energy in these organs than females of the same body size. Overall, the findings of this study reveal that the size of sensory traits in P. napi are not necessarily related to body size and raises questions about other factors that drive sensory trait investment in this species and in other insect pollinators in general.</p>}},
  author       = {{Moradinour, Zahra and Wiklund, Christer and Jie, Vun Wen and Restrepo, Carlos E. and Gotthard, Karl and Miettinen, Arttu and Perl, Craig D. and Baird, Emily}},
  issn         = {{2075-4450}},
  keywords     = {{Allometry; Antenna; Body size; Eye; Pieris napi; Proboscis; Sensory system; Wing}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{12}},
  publisher    = {{MDPI AG}},
  series       = {{Insects}},
  title        = {{Sensory organ investment varies with body size and sex in the butterfly pieris napi}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects12121064}},
  doi          = {{10.3390/insects12121064}},
  volume       = {{12}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}