Population Biology of Euphydryas Butterflies

这个项目将继续四分之一个世纪的研究，这些研究使用棋点蝴蝶作为模型系统来了解昆虫的生态学、遗传学和进化。这项工作已经导致了许多发现，这些发现对于设计合理的虫害控制策略非常重要。在这一资助期间，研究将集中在四个一般问题上。首先，成年蝴蝶的行为如何影响其种群的进化？其次，气候如何影响蝴蝶种群的数量？第三，蝴蝶如何在“空旷”的栖息地定居，新建立的蝴蝶种群灭绝的可能性有多大？第四，不同地方的种群如何在基因上变得不同？所有这些在理论上都是重要的，而且与经济问题也相关。

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.