Quantitative genetic variation in Bicyclus anynana metapopulations

Parent-offspring regression was used to estimate heritabilities (h²) of eight wing pattern characters plus five principal components of the butterfly Bicyclus anynana. The experiment consisted of six metapopulations with four subpopulations each with an effective subpopulation size Ne = 6 or 12, and additionally, one larger (Ne = 24) panmictic control population. Although the differences in treatments resulted in substantially different inbreeding coefficients at the ninth generation, there were no significantly differences in estimates of h² among populations. The h² estimates were moderately high (overall mean h² = 0.43), even for the smallest most inbred metapopulation (mean h_males² = 0.51, mean h_females² = 0.35). We discuss why no significant reduction in h² was detected in this analysis, while approximately similar sample sizes in molecular and fitness analyses were sufficient to detect severe inbreeding effects.