Mg. Nielsen et Wb. Watt, BEHAVIORAL FITNESS COMPONENT EFFECTS OF THE ALBA POLYMORPHISM OF COLIAS (LEPIDOPTERA, PIERIDAE) - RESOURCE AND TIME BUDGET ANALYSIS, Functional ecology, 12(1), 1998, pp. 149-158
1. Alba, a white wing colour morph of butterflies of the genus Colias,
makes fitness-related changes at several levels of phenotypic organiz
ation: physiology, development and behaviour. Two sympatric species of
Colias are studied, which differ greatly in their frequency of alba v
s its sister yellow/orange morph. How resource and time constraints on
Colias interact with the morphs? different patterns of pupal resource
allocation to alter the balance of the morphs' fitness components in
the two species is discussed. 2. These species, C, alexandra and C. sc
udderi, differ in melanin-based solar energy absorption, in larval die
tary richness and in local adult nectar resources, The two female morp
hs determine alternate thermal balance, internal resource allocation a
nd behavioural effects in each species, thus changing the morphs' time
budgets and fitness-component impacts between the species. In particu
lar, female egg output differences between the morphs appears to rever
se between species: alba fecundity is greater than yellow fecundity in
C. scudderi, but alba is less than yellow in C. alexandra. 3. These d
ifferences are consistent with the large observed differences in alba
frequency between the species. Some important questions about the sele
ctive regime maintaining a polymorphism here, rather than an alternati
on of monomorphisms, remain.