Development, function, and the quantitative genetics of wing melanin pattern in Pieris butterflies

Abstract

Both developmental organization and functional coadaptation among melanin characters influence the genetic correlation structure of melanin pattern in Pieris occidentalis. Results have two important implications for the evolution of melanin pattern in P. occidentalis and other butterflies: 1) most phenotypic variation in pattern may reflect variation among, rather than within, sets of developmentally homologous wing melanin characters; and 2) in a changing selective environment, genetic correlations may retard the disruption of functionally coupled melanin characters, thus affecting the evolutionary response to selection. -from Authors