Study: Butterflies and Moths Have Reused Same Genetic Toolkit for 120 Million Years

Ben Chehida et al. studied convergent evolution in multiple mimetic Neotropical lepidopteran lineages that diverged between 1 and 120 million years ago, including seven species of Ithomiini and Heliconius butterflies and a day-flying Chetone moth. Image credit: Ben Chehida et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003742.

A landmark study of several butterfly lineages and a day-flying moth in South America shows that convergent evolution — when unrelated species arrive at the same solution — isn’t just a coincidence; it follows a surprisingly consistent genetic script, and this discovery could help predict how species adapt to climate change.