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Divergent patterns of phenotypic selection on floral traits can arise in response to interactions with functionally distinct pollinators. However, there are a limited number of studies that relate patterns of phenotypic selection on floral traits to variation in local pollinator assemblages in pollination-generalized plant species. We studied phenotypic selection on floral traits of Viscaria vulgaris, a plant that interacts with a broad range of diurnal and nocturnal pollinators, and related divergence in phenotypic selection on floral traits to the expected level of divergence in local pollinator assemblages. We detected phenotypic selection on floral traits involved in the attraction of pollinators and the mechanics of pollen removal and deposition, and demonstrated that floral traits are subject to spatiotemporal variation in the strength and direction of phenotypic selection. We revealed that diurnal and nocturnal pollinators, when considered in isolation, mediated divergent patterns of phenotypic selection on floral traits. Consistent with the Grant-Stebbins model, we observed that divergence in phenotypic selection on floral traits increased with the expected level of divergence in local pollinator assemblages. Thus, generalized plant-pollinator interactions can mediate phenotypic selection on floral traits, and distinct local pollinator assemblages can generate a geographic mosaic of divergent patterns of phenotypic selection. We underscore that these outcomes are not exclusive to specialized plant-pollinator interactions and can emerge at a local geographic scale., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Evolutionary Biology.)

Natural selection on floral scent composition is a key element of the hypothesis that pollinators and other floral visitors drive scent evolution. The measure of such selection is complicated by the high-dimensional nature of floral scent data and uncertainty about the cognitive processes involved in scent-mediated communication. We use dimension reduction through reduced-rank regression to jointly estimate a scent composite trait under selection and the strength of selection acting on this trait. To assess and compare variation in selection on scent across species, time and space, we reanalyse 22 datasets on six species from four previous studies. The results agreed qualitatively with previous analyses in terms of identifying populations and scent compounds subject to stronger selection but also allowed us to evaluate and compare the strength of selection on scent across studies. Doing so revealed that selection on floral scent was highly variable, and overall about as common and as strong as selection on other phenotypic traits involved in pollinator attraction or pollen transfer. These results are consistent with an important role of floral scent in pollinator attraction. Our approach should be useful for further studies of plant-animal communication and for studies of selection on other high-dimensional phenotypes. In particular, our approach will be useful for studies of pollinator-mediated selection on complex scent blends comprising many volatiles, and when no prior information on the physiological responses of pollinators to scent compounds is available., (© 2022 The Authors. Journal of Evolutionary Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Society for Evolutionary Biology.)

Molecular studies of natural populations are often designed to detect and categorize hidden layers of cryptic diversity, and an emerging pattern suggests that cryptic species are more common and more widely distributed than previously thought. However, these studies are often decoupled from ecological and behavioural studies of species divergence. Thus, the mechanisms by which the cryptic diversity is distributed and maintained across large spatial scales are often unknown. In 1988, it was discovered that the common Eurasian Wood White butterfly consisted of two species (Leptidea sinapis and Leptidea reali), and the pair became an emerging model for the study of speciation and chromosomal evolution. In 2011, the existence of a third cryptic species (Leptidea juvernica) was proposed. This unexpected discovery raises questions about the mechanisms preventing gene flow and about the potential existence of additional species hidden in the complex. Here, we compare patterns of genetic divergence across western Eurasia in an extensive data set of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences with behavioural data on inter- and intraspecific reproductive isolation in courtship experiments. We show that three species exist in accordance with both the phylogenetic and biological species concepts and that additional hidden diversity is unlikely to occur in Europe. The Leptidea species are now the best studied cryptic complex of butterflies in Europe and a promising model system for understanding the formation of cryptic species and the roles of local processes, colonization patterns and heterospecific interactions for ecological and evolutionary divergence., (© 2013 The Authors. Journal of Evolutionary Biology © 2013 European Society For Evolutionary Biology.)

Species interacting in varied ecological conditions often evolve in different directions in different local populations. The butterflies of the cryptic Leptidea complex are sympatrically distributed in different combinations across their Eurasian range. Interestingly, the same species is a habitat generalist in some regions and a habitat specialist in others, where a sibling species has the habitat generalist role. Previous studies suggest that this geographically variable niche divergence is generated by local processes in different contact zones. By varying the absolute and relative densities of Leptidea sinapis and Leptidea juvernica in large outdoor cages, we show that female mating success is unaffected by conspecific density, but strongly negatively affected by the density of the other species. Whereas 80% of the females mated when a conspecific couple was alone in a cage, less than 10% mated when the single couple shared the cage with five pairs of the other species. The heterospecific courtships can thus affect the population fitness, and for the species in the local minority, the suitability of a habitat is likely to depend on the presence or absence of the locally interacting species. If the local relative abundance of the different species depends on the colonization order, priority effects might determine the ecological roles of interacting species in this system., (© 2013 The Authors. Journal of Evolutionary Biology © 2013 European Society For Evolutionary Biology.)