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Adaptive loss of color polymorphism and character displacements in sympatric Mnais damselflies

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Abstract

A geographical survey of two Mnais damselfly species in the Kinki area of Japan showed evidence for character displacements when the two species were found in sympatry. Mnais costalis, a species that has polymorphic male mating types of orange-winged territorial and clear-winged non-territorial morphs (hereafter abbreviated to orange and clear morphs respectively) in allopatry often shifted to having monomorphic orange morphs in sympatry. The mean body size of orange morphs was consistently larger than that of clear morph in allopatry. The mean body size of the sympatric orange morphs was even larger than that of allopatric orange morphs. By contrast, Mnais pruinosa, a species that also has two morphs of large orange and small clear morphs in allopatry, shifted to having monomorphic clear morphs in sympatry. The mean body size of the sympatric clear morphs was smaller than that of allopatric clear morphs. Divergence was also detected in the preference for habitat insolation conditions between sympatric Mnais damselflies. Both species in allopatric regions prefer half-light forest habitats, while in sympatric regions they showed diversified habitat preference: M. costalis preferred sunny habitats while M. pruinosa preferred shady habitats. Multiple character displacements in signal traits and habitat preference emerged in heterogeneous forest light environments are likely to have synergistic effects on the reproductive isolation of the two species.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank S. Plaistow for useful comments on an earlier version of this paper. We also appreciate helpful comments and suggestions by two anonymous reviewers. This work was supported by Japan Ministry of Education, Science and Culture (No. 23370012).

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  1. Center for Ecological Research, Kyoto University, Hirano 2-509-3, Otsu, 520-2113, Japan

    Yoshitaka Tsubaki & Hisashi Okuyama

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  1. Yoshitaka Tsubaki
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  2. Hisashi Okuyama
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Correspondence to Yoshitaka Tsubaki.

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Fig. S1

Map shows sampling locations (1-48) of Mnais damselflies. Open, solid and double circles indicate locations where only M. costalis, only M. pruinosa and both species were collected respectively. Thin lines indicate prefectural boundaries, and thick lines show outlines of allopatric and sympatric regions (PDF 249 kb)

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Tsubaki, Y., Okuyama, H. Adaptive loss of color polymorphism and character displacements in sympatric Mnais damselflies. Evol Ecol 30, 811–824 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-015-9778-3

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