Gliding in the Amazonian canopy: adaptive evolution of flight in Morpho butterflies

Abstract

The diversity of flying animals suggests that countless combinations of morphologies and behaviors have evolved with specific lifestyles, thereby exploiting diverse aerodynamic mechanisms. Elucidating how morphology, flight behavior and aerodynamic properties together diversify with contrasted ecologies remains however seldom accomplished. Here, we studied the adaptive co-divergence in wing shape, flight behavior and aerodynamic efficiency among Morpho butterflies living in different forest strata, by combining high-speed videography in the field with morphometric analyses and aerodynamic modelling. By comparing canopy and understory species, we show that adaptation to an open canopy environment resulted in increased glide efficiency. Moreover, this enhanced glide efficiency was achieved by different canopy species through strikingly distinct combinations of flight behavior, wing shape and aerodynamic mechanisms, highlighting the multiple pathways of adaptive evolution. One Sentence SummaryBy combining high-speed videography, geometric morphometrics and computational aerodynamic modelling, our study of wild Amazonian Morpho butterflies reveals a strong contrast between the efficient gliding flight of canopy species and the powerful flapping flight of understory species, pointing at a combined adaptive divergence of wing shape and flight behavior among sympatric species flying in different forest strata.