Reproductive Tactics in Tropical Butterflies Love or Life: How do butterflies balance survival and reproduction?

Abstract

<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b><span lang="EN" style="color:#01182d">Overview of Module: </span></b></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b>1) Content</b><span lang="EN" style="color:blue">. </span>Students will learn about a beautiful and inspiring example of tropical biodiversity: the glasswing butterflies! This example, based on research done in a tropical forest in Costa Rica, concerns natural selection and sexual selection and how conflicts between these lead to reproductive trade-offs. It incorporates concepts about camouflage and visual predation, survival curves, and chemical defenses and their physiological costs. The module also makes connections between real experimental data and simulation data.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b>2) Activities.</b> To reinforce understanding of evolutionary concepts and data literacy, students will create and interpret visual representations of data. One hands-on activity connects knowledge about culinary spices to plant defenses. Another activity uses beads to simulate natural and sexual selection and is integrated with a graphing exercise to visualize the results. There are also critical thinking and review-oriented questions for some segments. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b>3) Impact.</b> This module references many standard examples of natural selection, like the peacock tail as an emblem of sexual selection, in relation to authentic research conducted in a tropical rain forest. Having a coherent narrative centered on beautiful butterflies will assist students in thinking in a more complex way about evolutionary dynamics.  </span></span></span></p> <h3 style="margin-bottom:5px"><span style="font-size:14pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="color:#434343"><span style="font-weight:normal"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:11.0pt"><span style="line-height:115%">Learning Objectives: </span></span></b></span></span></span></span></span></h3> <ul> <li> <h3 style="margin-bottom:5px"><span style="font-size:14pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="color:#434343"><span style="font-weight:normal"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:11.0pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="color:black">Explain the evolutionary trade-off between reproductive success and survival demonstrated in the butterfly system.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></h3> </li> <li> <h3 style="margin-bottom:5px"><span style="font-size:14pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="color:#434343"><span style="font-weight:normal"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:11.0pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="color:black">Interpret figures (e.g., time spent feeding on plants, survival curves) and connect them to the study’s conclusions.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></h3> </li> <li> <h3 style="margin-bottom:5px"><span style="font-size:14pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="color:#434343"><span style="font-weight:normal"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:11.0pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="color:black">Connect the results of a simulation of natural selection to real biological data from a published study.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></h3> </li> </ul> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b>Support was provided by:</b> A grant from the United States National Science Foundation (DBI-RCN-UBE 2120141).</span></span></span></p>