Matskási István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 101. (Budapest 2009)

Bálint, Zs., Moser, A., Kertész, K., Biró, L. P. & Parker, A. R.: A supposition: structural colours resulting from both natural and sexual selection on an individual wing in the butterfly genus Cyanophrys (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae)

74 Zs. Bálint, A. Moser, K. Kertész, L. P. Biró & A. R. Parker DISCUSSION Dorsal wing surfaces In this paper we posed two working hypotheses, which were positively supported with spectroscopic measurements taken from 29 Cyanophrys specimens from five species. It emerged that the spectral properties of the male dorsal wing surfaces o

í Cyanophrys butterflies were species specific. This is in accordance with previous studies, which demonstrated for various lycaenid genera that the spectral properties of the male dorsal surface vary with species (BÁLINT, BOYER et al. 2006, BÁLINT, HORVÁTH et al. 2007, BÁLINT, KERTÉSZ et al. 2006, BÁLINT, WOJTUSIAK et al. 2007, BÁLINT et al. 2008). It is probable that these species specific signals in males play a major role (along with pheromones) in mate recognition in the case of the three SE Brazilian species, considering that they appear morphologically similar and cohabit the same environments (for example in Sáo Bento do Sul), and keep mating territories and perch practically at the same time of day (ROBBINS & DUARTE 2005). For example, in two cohabiting species, the very common C. acaste males possess the highest reflectivity measured in Cyanophrys at 480 nm, whilst the equally common C. amyntor is less reflective and its peak reflectance is shifted to 500 nm. The males of the mountanious forest species C. remus are the least reflective ones among the Brazilian triad and their spectral peaks occur at 490 nm. Since butterflies possess four types of cone cells that provide colour vision (SISON-MAGUS et al. 2006), it is possible that Cyanophrys butterflies have co-evolved (with the structural colour) sensitivity in the blue region that can discriminate between such subtle differences. Consequently, it is indeed probable that, the blue colour of male Cyanophrys butterflies is under the influence of sexual selection. Other interesting results yielded by our research were the revelation that the female spectral properties are also dissimilar from those of the males, although the females of different species are similar in their reflectance spectra. They can be specifically characterized and discriminated from male spectra. This discovery suggests that female dorsal wing surfaces also play an important role in the communication of the species. It can be presumed that female dorsal surface is used for signals directed to opposite Annls hist.-nat. Mtis. natn. hung. 101, 2009