Colour pattern is the main trait that drives mate recognition between Heliconius species that are phylogenetically close. However, when this cue is compromised such as in cases of mimetic, sympatric and closely related ...

"Identifying the genomic changes that control morphological variation and understanding how they generate diversity is a major goal of evolutionary biology. In Heliconius butterflies, a small number of genes control the ...

The use of subtle features as species diagnostic traits in taxa with high morphological similarity sometimes fails in discriminating intraspecific variation from interspecific differences, leading to an incorrect species ...

The Andean uplift has played a major role in shaping the current Neotropical biodiversity. However, in arthropods other than butterflies, little is known about how this geographic barrier has impacted species historical ...

"Triatomines are the vectors of Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiological agent of Chagas disease. Although Triatoma and Rhodnius are the most-studied vector genera, other triatomines, such as Panstrongylus, also transmit T. ...

Homoploid hybrid speciation is the formation of a new hybrid species without change in chromosome number. So far, there has been a lack of direct molecular evidence for hybridization generating novel traits directly involved ...

Background The genus Xanthomonas comprises several plant pathogenic bacteria affecting a wide range of hosts. Despite the economic, industrial and biological importance of Xanthomonas, the classification and phylogenetic ...

Most genetic studies of Haldane’s rule, in which hybrid sterility or inviability affects the heterogametic sex preferentially, have focused on Drosophila. It therefore remains unclear to what extent the conclusions of that ...

Sex-specific pheromones are known to play an important role in butterfly courtship, and may influence both individual reproductive success and reproductive isolation between species. Extensive ecological, behavioural and ...

An important evolutionary question concerns whether one or many barriers are involved in the early stages of speciation. We examine pre? and post?zygotic reproductive barriers between two species of butterflies (Heliconius ...