Agricultural and Biological Sciences
5 years ago

Butterfly co-occurrence patterns explained by resource niche filtering, not competition.

bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
Niche filtering, not interspecific resource competition, explains the geographical co-occurrence of butterfly species
Ryosuke Nakadai, Koya Hashimoto, Takaya Iwasaki, Yasuhiro Sato

Paper Summary

Butterfly species in Japan coexist based on their food sources, not competition. Researchers studied 229 butterflies across Japan and found that sharing host plants does not lead to competition but rather helps butterflies live together. This means that butterflies choose where to live based on what they eat, not fighting for food.

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