Nevertheless, restitution of a
population from a low number of individuals may be risky due to a relatively
high probability of genetic defects in the offspring. This is a phenomenon
known as a bottleneck effect which, apart from theoretical
calculations, could also be tested experimentally (Jarvis et al., 2011).
However, such an experimental evolution methods have also theirlimitations (Kawecki et al., 2012), and it is important to find how
often such processes occur in the nature and what are their real
consequences.
In the current, restituted population of P. apollo in Pieniny National
Park, there are serious problems with often appearance of insects with
deformed or severely reduced wings (Adamski and Witkowski, 1999).
Deformed wings are of the size similar to that found in normal individuals
(an individual with normal wings is depicted in Fig. 1A), but their
shape and arrangement are changed (an example is shown in Fig. 1B).
Reduced wings are of smaller size than normal ones, sometimes with
different morphology (Fig. 1C). There are also insects with extremely reduced
wings which are very small, resembling buds rather than a mature
organ (Fig. 1D). Although various mutations affecting wings were
reported in Apollo butterfly (Descimon, 1988; Pierrat and Descimon,
2011), none of them resulted in phenotypes occurring in the malformed
individuals from Pieniny. Therefore, we aimed to test if the wing abnormalities
in these butterflies may be caused by mutation(s) present in
the large proportion of the population