Climate change impacts on ectotherms will be a consequence of an interplay between species-specific evolutionary effects, population-level local adaptation, and developmental or plastic effects in individuals. While variation in thermal tolerance resulting from species physiological differences and local adaptation are well researched, how variation in plasticity across habitats might impact vulnerability to climate change remains poorly understood. We studied microhabitat (understory vs. open) distributions and the plasticity in thermal tolerance of four Bicyclus butterfly species across forest and ecotone (savanna-forest transition zone) habitats in Cameroon. For each species, we performed common garden experiments at two stable temperature regimes (20 and 30 °C) and quantified larval and adult thermal tolerance. We found clear differences in distributions across species such that two species were more associated with open microhabitats (B. dorothea and B. vulgaris) while two others were more understory associated (B. sanaos and B. sandace), with variation across seasons and habitats (forest vs. ecotone). Three species exhibited higher plasticity in critical thermal maximum (CTmax) in the ecotone relative to the forest indicating the importance of the interaction between habitat and developmental temperatures in influencing thermal tolerance. Microhabitat distributions were also consistent with trends in thermal tolerance; the most understory-associated species had both the lowest average CTmax and lowest plasticity in CTmax in the ecotone. Our findings suggest that microclimate and thermal adaptation shape plastic responses to thermal tolerance, and these factors will likely result in heterogenous responses to climatic change for tropical insects.

This research highlight introduces the analytical framework developed by Guilbault et al. (2025). Their framework employs a joint species distribution model to project species' distributions, followe...

Nature - Time-series data from tropical forests tracking weather and declines in arthropod diversity and function show that fluctuations in species were largely dependent on their El Niño...

Our study challenges the view that fire prevention alone is sufficient for restoring degraded landscapes. We show successful natural regeneration hinges on nearby remnant woodlands acting as crucial ....

Scientific Data - Spatial occurrence records and distributions of tropical Asian butterflies

Motivation Here, we make available a second version of the BioTIME database, which compiles records of abundance estimates for species in sample events of ecological assemblages through time. The up...

This study reveals how tropical butterflies exhibit activity shifts in response to habitat disturbance, adjusting flight activity patterns to buffer against temperature changes, but not higher illumi....

Nature Reviews Biodiversity, Published online: 04 April 2025; doi:10.1038/s44358-025-00038-9Insect biodiversity in tropical forests is poorly understood but is probably facing declines, with serious consequences for ecosystem functions and services. This Review describes the major threats to insect biodiversity, which include the effects of a burgeoning human population and of climate change. The authors further highlight the urgent need for greater efforts to measure and monitor insect biodiversity in the tropics and discuss emerging approaches to facilitate such studies.

John McPhee’s 1988 report about life in the San Gabriel Mountains, in northern Los Angeles County, which were disintegrating into rock porridge at a rate that was among the fastest in the world.

We analyzed a global dataset of 3117 bee assemblages across 157 studies to assess how bee diversity varies among natural, agricultural, and urban habitats. We measured diversity using both the number...

The investigation of wildlife trade and crime has benefitted from advances in technology and scientific development in a variety of fields. Stable isotope analysis (SIA) represents one rapidly develo...

(and review)

Background Early in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, Sunda pangolins (Manis javanica) involved in the illegal wildlife trade in mainland China were identified as hosts of severe acute...