To survive, species must not just live in their environments, but must also successfully mate and produce young. Nevertheless, traits that facilitate mating are often overlooked in determining species’ current and future ecological limits. This is of particular concern since reproductive efforts often have high energetic costs, and as such, can easily become constrictive under changing environmental conditions.

Michael Moore from the University of Colorado Denver, United States, and colleagues from the United States, investigated the role of pruinescence — a light-reflecting and hydrophobic coating found on male dragonflies that is associated with courting — in defining dragonfly niches. They experimentally demonstrated that males with pruinescence heated less and lost less water during warming than those without, and showed phylogenetic evidence that pruinescence permits thermohydrically stressful courtship, mating in warmer microhabitats and occupation of warmer ranges. Local moisture levels also underlie intraspecific variation in pruinescence. Finally, species with pruinescence have experienced lower local extinction rates due to climate change since the 1980s. Overall, this suggests that mating-related pruinescence can shape species’ limits in the context of contemporary climate change.

为了生存，物种不仅必须生活在其环境中，还必须成功交配并繁衍后代。然而，在确定物种当前和未来的生态极限时，促进交配的特征常常被忽视。这是特别值得关注的，因为繁殖努力通常具有很高的能量成本，因此在不断变化的环境条件下很容易变得收缩。

美国科罗拉多大学丹佛分校的迈克尔·摩尔和美国同事研究了紫红色（雄性蜻蜓身上发现的一种与求爱相关的反光和疏水涂层）在定义蜻蜓生态位中的作用。他们通过实验证明，与没有紫红色的雄性相比，在变暖过程中，紫红色的雄性受热较少，失去的水分也较少，并显示系统发育证据表明，紫红色的雄性允许在热水压力下求偶，在较温暖的微生境中交配，并占据较温暖的范围。局部湿度水平也是紫红色种内变异的基础。最后，自 20 世纪 80 年代以来，由于气候变化，具有紫红色特征的物种局部灭绝率较低。总体而言，这表明与交配相关的紫红色可以在当代气候变化的背景下塑造物种的极限。