![]() Morphological traits with thermal consequences, such as color lightness or body size, interact directly with the environment and affect ectotherm body temperatures. Life‐history and functional traits related to morphology and physiology directly influence species dispersal and distributions (Jiguet, Gadot, Julliard, Newson, & Couvet, 2007 Musolin, 2007 Pacifici et al., 2015 Pöyry, Luoto, Heikkinen, Kuussaari, & Saarinen, 2009). Furthermore, this study highlights how butterfly species might differentially respond to warming based on ecophysiological traits and how thermal refuges might emerge at microclimatic and habitat scales. ![]() Our results show a thermal consequence of butterfly morphology across habitats and how environmental factors at a microhabitat scale may affect the distribution of species based on these traits. Our ex situ experiment supported field observations that dark and large butterflies heated up faster than light and small butterflies under standardized environmental conditions. ![]() In addition, darker and larger butterflies preferred to be active in the shade and during crepuscular hours, while lighter and smaller butterflies were more active in the sun and midday hours-a pattern that held after correcting for phylogeny. In general, darker and larger individuals were more prevalent in cool, closed‐canopy rainforests than in immediately adjacent and hotter open woodlands. Using thermal imaging, we documented the absorption of solar radiation relative to color lightness and wingspan and then built a phylogenetic tree based on available sequences to analyze the effects of habitat on these traits within a phylogenetic framework. In this study, we examined variation in color lightness and body size within butterfly communities across hot and cool habitats in the tropical woodland–rainforest ecosystems of northeast Queensland, Australia. Therefore, temperature‐related traits such as morphology may affect patterns of species abundance, richness, and community assembly across a broad range of spatial scales. ![]() ![]() Dark organisms, for example, tend to absorb heat more quickly than lighter individuals, which could influence their responses to temperature. Morphology mediates the relationship between an organism's body temperature and its environment. ![]()
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