Vertical differentiation in tropical forest butterflies: a novel mechanism generating insect diversity?

Many tropical fruit-feeding nymphalid butterflies are associated with either the forest canopy or the understorey; however, the exceptions offer insights into the origins of tropical diversity. As it occurs in both habitats of tropical forests in Ecuador and Peru, Archaeoprepona demophon is one such exception. We compared patterns of occurrence of A.

Large-Scale Climate Effects Meet an Amazonian Butterfly: Which Population Parameters Respond to El Niño?

One of the most tangible outcomes of climate change is change in the frequency of El Niño/La Niña events. They have a large impact on rainfall in the Western hemisphere, but their impact on tropical fauna is largely unknown. A decade long capture-mark-recapture study of the widespread Ecuadorian butterfly Nessaea hewitsoni (Felder & Felder) from an intact forest allowed us to analyze patterns of monthly and seasonal population dynamics before, during, and after an El Niño event.

Seasonal cycles of species diversity and similarity in a tropical butterfly community.

1. Studies of seasonality in ecological diversity rarely extend over more than a few years, and few studies of seasonal diversity have explicitly investigated the influence of environmental factors on seasonal community composition, especially in tropical communities. 2.