Daniela Polic

Help us report observations of the two colour morphs of skogspärlemorfjäril (allmän pärlemorfjäril), the High Brown Fritillary Argynnis adippe/cleodoxa butterfly!

Very little is known about the two different colour morphs of Argynnis adippe. It occurs in a "normal" form adippe with silvery spots on the underside of the hindwing and another form called cleodoxa in which the spots are yellow (see Figure 1). The butterfly's preferred habitats are semi-natural grasslands, woodland clearings and it is also often found around power lines. The eggs are laid on dead leaves, bracken or twigs near the larval food plant, viz. different Viola species.

At Linnaeus University, Department of Biology and Environmental Science, we investigate the evolutionary and ecological causes of the two colour morphs. Please help us clarifying potential habitat preferences and the longitudinal distribution of the colour morphs by reporting sightings of these butterflies.

Please record, from each location, the proportion of the colour morph (adippe with silver spots or cleodoxa with yellow spots), date, site characteristics, number of individuals seen per minute and, if possible, sex. Please write the number of cleodoxa individuals in the comment section on artportalen.se. Please report to artportalen.se or directly to Daniela Polic,  daniela.polic@lnu.se.

We appreciate every single report! Thanks a lot!
If you are interested in contributing with material for genetic analyses or if you have further questions about the project please contact:
Daniela Polic
daniela.polic@lnu.se
+46725 94 98 34

Click on the pdf file below to see pictures of different color morphs of the skogspärlemorfjäril, the High Brown Fritillary Argynnis adippe/cleodoxa butterfly:

Advertisement_adippe cleodoxa.pdf

Research

Patterns, causes and consequences of colour pattern variation in butterflies and moths

In the course of my PhD-thesis, I will investigate the causes and consequences of genetic and phenotypic variation, using butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera) as model systems.

The first subproject will deal with the evolutionary ecology and dynamics of colour polymorphism in the High Brown Fritillary Argynnis adippe (Skogspärlemorfjäril). Unlike most butterflies, this species occurs in two distinct colour morphs: one form called adippe with silvery spots on the underside of the hindwing and one form called cleodoxa with yellow spots. I will investigate ecological and evolutionary drivers of the polymorphism by searching for associations of morph frequencies with landscape composition, environmental characteristics that constitute the selective regime, and with habitat changes and perturbations that might influence genetic structure, neutral and functional genetic diversity and phenotypic characteristics of natural populations.

Further projects will focus on exploring associations of variable colour patterns with life-history traits and genetic diversity in moths, investigating associations of variable colouration in larvae with variable colouration in adult moths, analysing divergence and correlated evolution of colour patterns and life-history traits in Macrolepidoptera using molecular phylogeny-based comparative analyses, as well as investigating seasonal shifts in intra-specific colour pattern variation and community-level colour composition in butterflies from Vietnam.