IJEE Soapbox: charismatic mesofauna: butterflies as inspiration and test for theory that integrates ecology and evolution

A person must have a heart of stone to glimpse a butterfly flickering in flight across a sun-dappled field, and not feel a little frisson of simple joy at the sight. The editors of this useful and timely compendium in their introductory remarks (Pe’er and Settele, 2008a, this issue) aptly observe that much of the public’s sympathy for butterfly conservation comes from the “beauty and charisma of butterflies”. The papers collected here highlight many important issues in the conservation of butterfly populations, from fundamental biological issues such as characterizing movement across landscapes (Hovestadt and Nowicki, 2008, this issue) and gauging climate drivers of community structure (Schwartz-Tzachor et al., 2008, this issue), to the use of butterflies as bioindicators (Pe’er and Settele, 2008b, this issue), to very practical issues emerging from engagement of the public in conservation efforts (Kühn et al., 2008, this issue). Schultz and Crone (2008, this issue) have carried out an intriguing survey of academics and practitioners concerned with butterfly ecology in order to assess which areas of ecological theory have been most useful in practice. The overwhelming response was metapopulation biology, which in essence emphasizes the role of space and disturbance in driving population dynamics. The editors in their introduction (Pe’er and Settele, 2008a, this issue) amplify this theme, suggesting that a primary challenge facing our field is to integrate ecological processes across spatial scales from the level of individual movement decisions to that of macroecological and biogeographical patterns. I concur with this suggestion. In my brief remarks here, I will reflect on an important problem at the interface of ecology and evolution where in my opinion there could be a much more fruitful interplay of theory and empiricism, a problem where the study of butterflies may be “pre-adapted” to play an exemplary role. The problem also often involves space, and is related to conservation, but in different ways than emphasized in the papers in this issue. Like all organisms, butterflies