Disruptive sexual selection against hybrids contributes to speciation between Heliconius cydno and Heliconius melpomene

Understanding the fate of hybrids in wild populations is fundamental to understanding speciation. Here we provide evidence for disruptive sexual selection against hybrids between Heliconius cydno and Heliconius melpomene. The two species are sympatric across most of Central and Andean South America,...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences Biological sciences, 2001-09, Vol.268 (1478), p.1849-1854
Main Authors: Naisbit, Russell E., Jiggins, Chris D., Mallet, James
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Butterflies
Butterflies - physiology
Chimera
Ecological genetics
Female
Female animals
Heliconius cydno
Heliconius melpomene
Hybridity
Hybridization
Lepidoptera
Male
Male animals
Mallets
Mate Choice
Mating behavior
Nymphalidae
Post-Mating Isolation
Pre-Mating Isolation
Sex Preselection
Sexual Behavior, Animal
Sexual selection
Speciation
Species Specificity
Sympatric species
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Understanding the fate of hybrids in wild populations is fundamental to understanding speciation. Here we provide evidence for disruptive sexual selection against hybrids between Heliconius cydno and Heliconius melpomene. The two species are sympatric across most of Central and Andean South America, and coexist despite a low level of hybridization. No-choice mating experiments show strong assortative mating between the species. Hybrids mate readily with one another, but both sexes show a reduction in mating success of over 50% with the parental species. Mating preference is associated with a shift in the adult colour pattern, which is involved in predator defence through Müllerian mimicry, but also strongly affects male courtship probability. The hybrids, which lie outside the curve of protection afforded by mimetic resemblance to the parental species, are also largely outside the curves of parental mating preference. Disruptive sexual selection against F1 hybrids therefore forms an additional post-mating barrier to gene flow, blurring the distinction between pre-mating and post-mating isolation, and helping to maintain the distinctness of these hybridizing species.
ISSN:0962-8452
1471-2954
DOI:10.1098/rspb.2001.1753