![\"Monarch](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/monarch-butterfly-credit-texaseagle-flickr-cc-by-nc-20.jpg\")
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Monarch butterfly. Credit: TexasEagle \/ Flickr \/ CC BY-NC 2.0<\/p>\n
Evolution reuses the same genes to produce identical wing color patterns in butterflies and moths that diverged up to 120 million years ago. The research, published in PLOS Biology, settles a long-running scientific debate about whether mimicry in nature is driven by a few large genetic switches or many small changes scattered across the genome.<\/p>\n
Yacine Ben Chehida from the Department of Biology at the University of York led the team. Researchers studied species belonging to the neotropical \u201ctiger mimicry ring,\u201d a group of more than 100 species from five insect families found across South America. Many share nearly identical wing patterns despite being only distantly related, a phenomenon scientists call convergent evolution<\/a>.<\/p>\n The tropical mimicry ring that puzzled scientists for decades<\/p>\n The team used genome-wide association studies across eight species, including seven butterfly species from the genera Melinaea, Mechanitis, Hypothyris, and Heliconius, as well as the day-flying moth Chetone histrio.<\/p>\n They traced which genetic regions controlled two key traits: yellow forewing bands and black-orange hindwing coloring in species that diverged between 1 and 120 million years ago.<\/p>\n The results pointed consistently to two genes, ivory and optix. Across all butterfly species studied, the genetic changes appeared in nearly identical locations within these genes.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Researchers confirmed these findings through CRISPR gene<\/a> knockouts in Mechanitis messenoides, showing that disabling ivory turned black and orange scales yellow, while disabling optix turned orange scales black.<\/p>\n CRISPR knockouts confirm two genes drive wing patterns<\/p>\n The moth Chetone histrio added another striking parallel. Its color pattern differences were tied to a roughly one-million base-pair chromosomal inversion containing ivory.<\/p>\n Heliconius numata butterfly. Credit: Greg Hume<\/a> \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/a> \/ CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a><\/p>\n This structure closely mirrored one already documented in the butterfly Heliconius numata, despite the two species sharing a common ancestor<\/a> approximately 120 million years ago.<\/p>\n In Heliconius pardalinus, researchers found the same pattern through a different method. Quantitative trait locus mapping confirmed that ivory controlled yellow forewing patterns and optix governed orange hindwing coloring, consistent with findings across all other species.<\/p>\n Evolution reuses the same genes across species<\/p>\n![\"Heliconius](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/heliconius-numata-butterfly-credit-greg-hume-wikimedia-commons-cc-by-sa-40.jpg\"\/)
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