Introduction: Diet and temporal specialists, especially those in tropical seasonal environments, require synchronous phenology with hosts. Species with life-history-traits that covary with temporal specialization may be particularly vulnerable to climate-driven changes in phenology. In the Cerrado, larger fruit-feeding butterflies species tend to be less abundant and more seasonal than their smaller-bodied relatives. It is important to consider how ecological process and phylogenetic history are associated with these attributes. Aim/Methods: Here we evaluated the effects of climate and body size on the seasonality of abundance of fruit-feeding butterflies as well as their association with natural history traits including diet breadth and synchrony with fruits.Results: The distribution of abundances of these butterflies species was not uniform throughout the year, was associated with body size and shaped by habitat type and climate. Overall, hot and wet months were associated with higher abundance and species richness of these nymphalids in the Cerrado. Lineages of large-bodied species were less abundant, more seasonal and more generalized in larval diet breadth. In addition, these large-bodied clades were more tightly synchronized with fruit phenology.Discussion: Our findings support the hypothesis that large and less abundant species to occur in a narrow temporal window and synchronized with fruit phenology. Implications for insect conservation: Particular attention should be given for the conservation of larger-bodied temporal specialist species as they are vulnerable to phenology mismatching as a result of rapid global warming, but they will also face additional pressures with the advancing deforestation in the Cerrado.
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