Institute of Technical Physics and Materials Science, Centre for Energy Research, P.O. Box 49, H-1525, Budapest, Hungary.
Hungarian Natural History Museum, Baross utca 13, H-1088, Budapest, Hungary.
Sci Rep. 2019 Feb 20;9(1):2338. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-38827-w.
Color is a widely used communication channel in the living world for a variety of functions ranging from sexual communication to warning colors. A particularly rich spectrum of colors appears on the wings of many butterflies. The males of lycaenid butterflies often exhibit a conspicuous blue coloration generated by photonic nanoarchitectures on their dorsal wing surfaces. Using UV-VIS spectroscopy, we investigated the spatio-temporal variations of this coloration for Polyommatus icarus butterflies, considering an interval of more than 100 years and a geographical range spanning Europe (west) and Asia (east). The blue coloration in Hungary is very stable both within a year (three broods typical in Hungary) and within the period of 100 years (more than 300 generations). East-west geographic variation was investigated among 314 male P. icarus butterflies. In agreement with earlier genetic and morphometric studies, it was found that the western males are not divided in distinct lineages. Clear differences in coloration were found between the eastern and western groups, with a transition in the region of Turkey. These differences are tentatively attributed to bottleneck effects during past glaciations.
颜色是生物世界中广泛使用的一种交流渠道，具有多种功能，从性交流到警戒色。许多蝴蝶的翅膀上都呈现出特别丰富的颜色。在许多斑蝶科蝴蝶的雄性翅膀的背面上，存在着由光子纳米结构产生的明显的蓝色调。我们使用紫外可见光谱法研究了 Polyommatus icarus 蝴蝶的这种颜色的时空变化，考虑了一个超过 100 年的时间间隔和跨越欧洲（西部）和亚洲（东部）的地理范围。在匈牙利，这种蓝色在一年内（匈牙利典型的三个繁殖期）和 100 年内（超过 300 代）都非常稳定。在 314 只雄性 P. icarus 蝴蝶中，我们研究了东西方向的地理变异。与早期的遗传和形态计量学研究一致，发现西部的雄性并没有分成明显的谱系。在东部和西部群体之间发现了明显的颜色差异，在土耳其地区有一个过渡。这些差异可能归因于过去冰川时期的瓶颈效应。
