Population Biology of Euphydryas Butterflies

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This project will continue a quarter century of investigations that have used checkerspot butterflies as a model system to understand the ecology, genetics, and evolution of insects. The work has already led to numerous findings that are important to the design of rational pest control strategies. During this grant period, research will concentrate on four general questions. First, how does the behavior of adult butterflies influence the evolution of their populations? Second, how does climate influence the size of the butterfly populations? Third, how do butterflies colonize "empty" areas of habitat and how likely are newly established populations to go extinct? Fourth, how do populations in different places become genetically distinct? All of these are both theoretically important and also relevant to economic questions.