Lycaenid butterfly coloration and discoloration
Informations
- Funding country
Hungary- Acronym
- -
- Start date
- 2/1/2003
- End date
- 12/31/2006
- Budget
- 23,469 EUR
Fundings
| Name | Role | Start | End | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thematic Programme | Grant | 2/1/2003 | 12/31/2006 | 23,469 EUR |
Abstract
The phenomenon that certain groups of butterflies (Insecta, Lepidoptera, Rhopalocera) inhabiting oreal habitats in high altitudes or latitudes are tending to loose their iridescent dorsal wing coloration was described as discoloration for the family of lycaenid butterflies (Lycaenidae). It was hypothetized, that adaptation as absorbing more solar energy via dorsal discoloration in hostile environment is one of the possible explanation for the phenomenon. An other type of discoloration with ventral wing coloration and pattern change, correlated to boreal South American lycaenid butterflies, was also discovered. There is no hypothesis for this phenomenon. Investigating the physiomorphology and thermoregulatory of the species originating from the oreal biota we test the hypothesis of oreal discoloration experimentally. We search for characters, which are help to describe and understand the boreal discoloration via hypothesis construction and experiments.