Natural and sexual selection and functional roles influence colouration but not the amount of variation in butterfly wing colour patterns.

Background: Trait variation is shaped by functional roles of traits and the strength and direction of selection acting on the traits. We hypothesized that in butterflies, sexually selected colouration is more variable owing to condition-dependent nature and directional selection on sexual ornaments, whereas naturally selected colouration may be less variable because of stabilising selection. We measured reflectance spectra, and extracted colour parameters, to compare the amount of variation in sexually versus naturally selected colour patches across wing surfaces and sexes of 20 butterfly species across 4 families (Nymphalidae, Papilionidae, Pieridae, Lycaenidae).