Morphological Determinants of Flight Performance and Fitnessin Pieris Butterflies

包括蝴蝶在内的许多昆虫都利用躲避飞行来躲避鸟类和蜘蛛等潜在的捕食者。翅膀的大小和形状、身体的大小和形状以及飞行行为的许多方面都与成功躲避捕食者有关，但尚不清楚大小和形状的哪些具体方面实际上决定了逃避飞行和逃避捕食的能力。在拟议的研究中，我们将在实验中操纵西白蝴蝶的翅膀大小和身体质量，以测试关于捕食者逃避的形态决定因素的两个相互竞争的假说：翅膀负荷(身体质量与翅膀面积的比率)和飞行肌肉比率(飞行肌肉质量与总身体质量的比率)。通过在实验室和现场进行这些操作，我们将确定机翼负载和飞行肌肉比率如何影响飞行性能、捕食率以及生存和繁殖。

Many insects, including butterflies, use evasive flight as a means of avoiding potential predators like birds and spiders. Many aspects of wing size and shape, body size and shape, and flight behavior are correlated with successful predator avoidance, but it is not clear what specific aspects of size and shape actually determine evasive flight ability and escape from predation. IN the proposed research, we shall experimentally manipulate wing size and body mass in Western White butterflies to test two competing hypotheses about the morphological determinants of predator- evasion: wing-loading (the ratio of body mass to wing area) and flight muscle ratio (the ratio of flight muscle mass to total body mass). By doing these manipulations in both the lab and the field, we shall determine how wing-loading and flight muscle ratio affect flight performance, predation rates, and survival and reproduction.