22 - Origin of Butterfly Wing Patterns

Abstract

This chapter highlights the general structure and properties of the elements of butterfly wing patterns and then discusses their developmental and evolutionary origins. It defines that butterfly color patterns are very different from those of leopards and zebras. The color patterns of leopards and zebras are made up of spots and stripes that are placed either randomly or evenly and whose number and position differ from individual to individual. These coat patterns have the same characteristics of randomness and individual variability as the ridge patterns of human fingerprints. In butterflies, by contrast, the same spot or stripe occurs in exactly the same location in all individuals of a species. More importantly, a given spot or stripe can be traced from species to species within a genus and often from genus to genus within a family. The elements that make up the wing pattern of butterflies are an anatomical system that is as organized and diverse as the vertebrate skeleton and the body segmentation and tagmatization of arthropods. It is a system in which there is homology, and in which problems of developmental and evolutionary origin, adaptation, and diversification can be analyzed.