Left: Ventral View
Right: Dorsal View
Bicyclus anynana Butler belongs to a genus of satyrid butterflies which occur in central Africa. The butterflies of the dry-season form survive hidden in the dry vegetation. They are colored with a gray-brown pattern and thus display a mimetic coloration. In contrast, butterflies of the wet-season form display a system of eyespots and contrasted bands. The animals always present the underside of their wings. Thereby they present the eyespots which are thought to function as deflective devices against visually hunting predators. All species of the genus Bicyclus show this seasonal polyphenism which is environmentally regulated by the temperature during larval development. Bicyclus anynana feeds on different grasses and in the laboratory we breed it on maize. Very different color patterns can be selected and stabilized in different strains by artificial selection over a few generations (link to Leiden University). Also mutant color patterns occur showing additional eyespots, fusion of adjacent eyespots or different eyespot shapes. Therefore, Bicyclus is an excellent species to study the development and evolution of color patterns. |
