Eco-evo-devo advances on seasonal plasticity of butterfly eyespots

Seasonal variation in butterfly wing color patterns is a classic model system of adaptive phenotypic plasticity. While decades of studies provided insights into the underlying ecological roles and physiological regulation of this adaptation, recent advances detail how plasticity develops at the transcriptomic level and evolves at the genomic level. Here, we synthesize these recent advances, focusing on wing eyespot size plasticity in the subfamily Satyrinae (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae) and the model species Bicyclus anynana, the most intensively studied system. We also propose future directions in the field.