Variation in compound eye structure: effects of diet and family.

摘要: Studies of compound eyes have revealed that variation in eye structure can substantially affect visual performance. Here, we investigate the degree to which a stressful rearing environment, decreases body size, affects phenotype. Full siblings Orange Sulphur butterfly, Colias eurytheme, were collected from known parents and split within families among two diet treatments varied quality. In both sexes, individuals reared on high-quality had larger height anterior facet diameter, therefore, by inference, superior vision. However, relative their reduced low-quality proportionally facets than diet. We interpret this finding as evidence butterflies encountering nutritional stress increased proportional investment development reduce loss also found significant broad-sense genetic underlying males females, report novel heritability estimates for diameter. Surprisingly, there was greater despite apparently stronger directional selection male discuss implications these data our understanding evolution.