Evolution of the olfactory system during the radiation of Heliconiini butterflies

Sensory system evolution plays a crucial role in shaping species’ interactions with their environment, yet the extent to which olfactory system diversity reflects ecological and evolutionary pressures at a macroevolutionary scale remains unclear. Here, we investigate the evolution of the olfactory system across the Heliconiini butterfly tribe, an ecologically diverse but closely related group. Using a comparative approach, we examined variation in antennal lobe morphology and its constituent structures, the glomeruli and antennal lobe hub, as well as odourant receptor repertoires across species. We found that antennal lobe size variation is driven by independent shifts in glomerular and antennal lobe hub volumes, with species-specific differences occurring against a backdrop of broader phylogenetic stability. While no direct associations with ecological traits were observed, certain species showed large expansions in total glomerular volume and odourant receptor numbers, warranting furt..., , # Data from: Evolution of the olfactory system during the radiation of Heliconiini butterflies

Toh is responsible for collecting data and writing the code.

This data folder contains all data files, phylogenetic tree needed for analyses, and R scripts to perform all analyses described in the study. This data folder also contains the raw confocal images and label files of the Heliconius brain samples, which was used to estimate the number of glomeruli. There are 14 digital files in total. All files can be opened by the AMIRA software from ThermoFisher Scientific.

Note: Additional detailed references for the three ecological traits used for the analyses in the paper are available in the description of Table S8. For all species name abbreviations, please refer to Table S8, columns 'sp full' and 'sp abb'.

Data files within folder:

\"Heliconiini_olfactory_evolution_supplementary_tables.xlsx\"

This Excel sheet contains 9 tables. Detailed description for each table can be found under supple...,