Nutritional stress reduces flight performance and exploratory behavior in a butterfly

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Animal Behavior
• Climate Change Biology

Background:

• Anthropogenic global change, including agricultural intensification and climate change, reduces food resources for herbivores.
• Food stress can negatively impact traits essential for survival, such as dispersal ability.
• Dispersal is crucial for escaping deteriorating environmental conditions, but these conditions may impair dispersal capacity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of larval and adult food stress on dispersal-related traits in a butterfly.
• To assess how inadequate nutrition affects morphology, physiology, flight performance, and exploratory behavior.

Main Methods:

• Experimental manipulation of food availability during larval and adult stages in a butterfly species.
• Measurement of morphological and physiological parameters.
• Assessment of flight performance and exploratory behavior.

Main Results:

• Inadequate nutrition during development and adulthood significantly reduced flight performance.
• Reductions in body mass and storage reserves were the primary causes of diminished flight ability.
• Exploratory behavior was also negatively affected by food stress and showed individual repeatability, suggesting a potential personality trait.
• Flight performance and exploratory behavior were positively correlated, indicating a possible dispersal syndrome.

Conclusions:

• Food stress, a consequence of global change, impairs critical dispersal traits like flight performance and exploration in butterflies.
• These findings suggest that environmental conditions that necessitate dispersal may paradoxically reduce the ability of individuals to disperse.
• The study highlights potential negative feedback loops on population dynamics and range shifts under ongoing global change.