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Record W4416019850 · doi:10.1101/2025.11.06.686962

Anthropogenic factors explain wing colour variation in <i>Colias</i> (Lepidoptera: Pieridae) butterflies across the Toronto urbanization gradient

2025· preprint· W4416019850 on OpenAlexaffabout
Amanda Sabatino, Joshua P. Jahner, S. Eryn McFarlane

Bibliographic record

VenuebioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2025
Typepreprint
Language
FieldAgricultural and Biological Sciences
TopicAnimal Behavior and Reproduction
Canadian institutionsYork University
Fundersnot available
KeywordsUrbanizationVariation (astronomy)Disturbance (geology)WingCo-occurrenceUrban ecology

Abstract

fetched live from OpenAlex

Abstract Hybridization, or interbreeding between two previously diverged populations, is increasing due to human influences on the environment. Rates of hybridization might be increasing particularly quickly among urban species, especially those that are known to be sensitive to environmental disturbances. Butterflies are one such taxa, as some species are commonly found in urban areas, despite being sensitive indicators. For example, Colias philodice and C. eurytheme (Lepidoptera: Pieridae) hybridize when their ranges are in contact or overlap and are commonly found in large cities throughout North America. However, it is an open question how variation in urbanization might affect variation in hybridization. Using wild Colias across a gradient of urbanization in Toronto, Ontario, we tested how the variation in Colias colour, as an indicator of hybridization, relates to human disturbance and urbanization. We created an objective numeric classification for both C. eurytheme and C. philodice , against which we categorized Colias samples. We found that some of the urbanization metrics, including distance to road, Julian date, and number of pedestrians affect the variation in Colias colour, suggesting that urbanization affects Colias colouration, and potentially rates of hybridization, in Toronto. This means that human disturbance of the environment could be affecting Colias rates of hybridization.

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.

How this classification was reachedexpand

Full frame machine prediction

Teacher imitation

Not calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.

metaresearch head score (Codex)0.000
metaresearch head score (Gemma)0.001
Version: metacan-v3-hybrid-931329e0061cValidation status: machine_predicted_unvalidated
Candidate categoriesnone
Consensus categoriesnone
DomainCandidate signal: none · Consensus signal: none
Study designCandidate signal: Observational · Consensus signal: Observational
GenreCandidate signal: Empirical · Consensus signal: Empirical
Teacher disagreement score0.352
Threshold uncertainty score0.707

Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)

CategoryCodexGemma
Metaresearch0.0000.001
Meta-epidemiology (narrow)0.0000.000
Meta-epidemiology (broad)0.0000.000
Bibliometrics0.0010.001
Science and technology studies0.0010.001
Scholarly communication0.0010.000
Open science0.0000.000
Research integrity0.0000.000
Insufficient payload (model declined to judge)0.0020.000

Machine scores (provisional)

The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.

Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.

Opus teacher head0.017
GPT teacher head0.232
Teacher spread0.216 · how far apart the two teachers sit on this one work
Validation statusscore_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it

Classification

machine, unvalidated

Machine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.

The models applied no category: nothing in the taxonomy fit this work.
Study designObservational
Domainnot available
GenreEmpirical

How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".

Quick stats

Citations0
Published2025
Admission routes2
Has abstractyes

Explore more

Same venuebioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)→Same topicAnimal Behavior and Reproduction→French-language works237,207→