Quantitative analysis of the diversity of the “picture-wing” family of Drosophila

It is believed that large diversity of nearly 1000 Hawaiian Drosophila originated from a single species, which makes this family of Drosophila system is a prominent example of an adaptive radiation. These species, the “picture-wing” family, have reach variety of patterns on their wings. We develop quantitative methods to analyze the diversity of their wing patterns, that is insensitive to the particular size of the wing. We use our analysis to address questions pertaining to evolution of patterning.