Evolution of frugivory across a large radiation of non-seed-dispersing animals
Abstract
The origin of Angiosperm fleshy fruits, a novel nutritious resource, has led to the evolution of frugivory in a wide range of animals. While the (co)evolutionary dynamics between fruits and seed dispersers has received much attention, the evolution of frugivory in non-seed-dispersing animals remains overlooked. Here, we elucidate the macroevolution of frugivory in a large radiation of an insect, butterflies, by combining macroevolutionary analyses and field experiments. Our comparative analyses spanning 80 million years of evolution across Nymphalidae butterflies, the only family which feed on fermenting fruits, revealed that frugivory has deep origins ~60 million years ago and has evolved convergently from nectar-feeding lineages. Notably, ancestral state estimations indicate that the evolution of frugivory roughly coincides with the evolution of larger fleshy fruit sizes in Angiosperms. Our field experiments across the tropics further showed that frugivorous butterflies from diverse lineages have convergently evolved a strong preference for fermenting over fresh fruit bait, suggesting that the evolution of frugivory is associated with behavioural specialization. Together, our study shows that fleshy fruits likely created a new ecological opportunity that butterflies exploited and required behavioural specialization to exploit this novel resource.
Related
- The distribution of fitness effects of nonsynonymous mutations varies phylogenetically across animals
- Overexploitation risks disproportionate vertebrate downsizing and declines in potential dispersal distances in frugivory networks
- A new phased assembly of the Antarctic spiny plunderfish provides novel insights into the evolution of the notothenioid radiation.
- Bird-plant frugivory networks in two secondary Araucaria forests in southern Brazil
- Invasive Strawberry Guava weakens avian frugivory in native forests of an oceanic island
BibTeX
@misc{halali2026evolution,
title = {{Evolution of frugivory across a large radiation of non-seed-dispersing animals}},
author = {Sridhar Halali and Dheeraj Halali and Henry Barlow and Jessie Pereira Santos Pereira Santos and Oskar Brattström and Ullasa Kodandaramaiah and Freerk Molleman and Christopher Wheat and André VL Freitas and Niklas Wahlberg},
howpublished = {EcoEvoRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.32942/x2nh5k},
url = {https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/view/14987/},
note = {CC BY-NC 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Evolution of frugivory across a large radiation of non-seed-dispersing animals
AU - Sridhar Halali
AU - Dheeraj Halali
AU - Henry Barlow
AU - Jessie Pereira Santos Pereira Santos
AU - Oskar Brattström
AU - Ullasa Kodandaramaiah
AU - Freerk Molleman
AU - Christopher Wheat
AU - André VL Freitas
AU - Niklas Wahlberg
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/16
PB - EcoEvoRxiv
DO - 10.32942/x2nh5k
UR - https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/view/14987/
AB - The origin of Angiosperm fleshy fruits, a novel nutritious resource, has led to the evolution of frugivory in a wide range of animals. While the (co)evolutionary dynamics between fruits and seed dispersers has received much attention, the evolution of frugivory in non-seed-dispersing animals remains overlooked. Here, we elucidate the macroevolution of frugivory in a large radiation of an insect, butterflies, by combining macroevolutionary analyses and field experiments. Our comparative analyses spanning 80 million years of evolution across Nymphalidae butterflies, the only family which feed on fermenting fruits, revealed that frugivory has deep origins ~60 million years ago and has evolved convergently from nectar-feeding lineages. Notably, ancestral state estimations indicate that the evolution of frugivory roughly coincides with the evolution of larger fleshy fruit sizes in Angiosperms. Our field experiments across the tropics further showed that frugivorous butterflies from diverse lineages have convergently evolved a strong preference for fermenting over fresh fruit bait, suggesting that the evolution of frugivory is associated with behavioural specialization. Together, our study shows that fleshy fruits likely created a new ecological opportunity that butterflies exploited and required behavioural specialization to exploit this novel resource.
ER -