Body size and its correlates in fruit-feeding butterflies in a seasonal environment

Introduction Body-size covaries with many species’ traits, with implications for population and ecosystem-level patterns. Body size and seasonality of a species may covary if, for certain body sizes and optimal resource availability, meet the larger energy requirements of large-bodied species, are restricted to a narrow temporal window. Aim/methods Here, we examine the relationship between body size and seasonality of fruit-feeding butterflies in the Cerrado, as well as its association with larval diet breadth and synchrony with fruit phenology. Results Relative to smaller-bodied clades, the adults within larger clades were less abundant, more generalized in their larval diet-breadth, more seasonal, and synchronized with fruit phenology. Discussion Body-size covaries with species traits that are sensitive to anthropogenic drivers. In the Cerrado realm, Brazil, larger-bodied butterflies tend to be more temporally specialized and more synchronized with food plants—therefore, more vulnerable to climate-driven changes in phenology (i.e., fruiting season). Implications for insect conservation To account for climate driven changes in synchrony with resources in the Cerrado, conservation should continue to focus on preserving habitat, especially corridors between savannah and gallery forests, so that resources are diverse and sufficiently abundant to sustain populations. Results from our study suggest that to conserve larger-bodied nymphalids, habitat restoration projects should prioritize seed sources that will maximize interaction diversity. This may not only be achieved by planting a diversity of native host plants but also cultivars that offset seasonal changes in the timing of flushing or fruiting.