Sam’s paper on the the predictability of genome‐wide evolutionary changes associated with a recent host shift in the Melissa blue butterfly (Lycaeides melissa) is now out in Molecular Ecology. The main messages from this paper are that predictability is quantitative rather than binary, and that evolutionary change can be more or less predictable depending on the basis of those predictions. Specifically, we show that genome-wide evolutionary changes are better predicted from comparison among repeated host shifts than from gene-by-performance associations detected in lab experiments.

Also check out Catherine Linnen’s News and Views article covering Sam’s paper.

Lycaeides melissa female on alfalfa.