Skip to main content
Figure 1 | BMC Biology

Figure 1

From: The coming and going of Batesian mimicry in a Holarctic butterfly clade

Figure 1

Two contrasting hypotheses of mimicry evolution in the Limenitis arthemis species complex. (a) According to the reversion hypothesis, mimetic L. a. astyanax is sister to non-mimetic L. a. arthemis. Under this hypothesis, the mimetic phenotype arose in the common ancestor to all L. arthemis and was subsequently lost in the L. a. arthemis lineage. (b) In contrast, the monophyletic mimic hypothesis predicts that the mimetic lineages L. a. astyanax and L. a. arizonensis are most closely related to each other and Batesian mimicry evolved only in the stem group of these two subspecies. Recent phylogenetic hypothesis testing [9] provided evidence in favor of the reversion hypothesis. Figure modified from [9].

Back to article page