Correlated evolution of multiple traits gives butterflies a false head

Many butterflies possess a combination of characters at the posterior hindwing end, superficially resembling their head. This ‘false head’ has been hypothesised to deflect predator attacks towards the false head area. A clear understanding of the diversity and evolution of false head traits across butterflies is lacking. Here, we tested whether false head traits evolved from simple to complex in order to achieve a greater resemblance to a head. We also tested if false head traits formed an adaptive constellation and, thus, evolved in correlation. Using a phylogenetic framework with 927 lycaenid species, our results illustrate evolutionary patterns of five false traits - (i) false antennae, (ii) spot, (iii) conspicuous colouration in the false head area, (iv) false head contour in the false head area, and (v) convergent lines. We found that false traits (i)–(iv) evolved in a correlated fashion across the phylogeny, likely driven by a common selective pressure. Our findings support the id..., , , # Correlated evolution of multiple traits gives butterflies a fasle head

R codes and datasets used to model the evolution of false head traits in butterflies

### Sequence Data

**Filename:** `928sp_sequences.xlsx`
**Description:** This file contains all the gene sequences with sequence ID for all the species used to reconstruct the constrained Lycaenidae phylogeny. This datafile contains the downloaded sequences of 9 genes from NCBI; \"NA\" represents sequences not available on NCBI. The column with the header \"Name\" is the list of species. For each gene, there are three columns with headers \"XXseqID\", \"XXsequencelength\" and \"XXsequence\" for gene sequence ID, length of the sequence and the nucleotide sequence respectively, where XX represents the gene.

### Phylogenies

**Filename:** `21Jan2025_30June23_SubfamAdded_RelTime_DivergenceTime_928sp.nwk`
**Description:** This file is the time-calibrated phylogeny of the 928 species.
This phylogeny and the pruned ones derived from this were us...,