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Tag: "butterflies" at biology news

Amino acids in nectar enhance butterfly fecundity: A long awaited link

...order to entice pollinators such as bees, flies or butterflies to visit and successfully pollinate their flowers,...s discovered that nectars of flowers pollinated by butterflies contain substantial amounts of amino acids. Recent experiments have shown that butterflies actually ...

In the migratory marathon, parasitized monarchs drop out early

...parasites by weeding out diseased animals. Monarch butterflies in eastern North America fly up to thousands of kilometers from Canada to Central Mexico ?one of the longest migrations of any insect species. Emory University researchers found that monarchs infected with a protozoan parasite fly slower, tire out fa...

Biodiversity hotspots identify conservation priorities

...ife spectacles, the over wintering mass of monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) in the pine forests of Michoacan. Threats to the hotspot include logging and intentional burning to clear land for livestock or agriculture. Hotspots Revisited was produced by CEMEX, one of the world's largest cement manufacturers...

Butterfly migration could be largest known

Millions of painted lady butterflies that fluttered into California's Central Valley in...rd, said Arthur Shapiro, a professor and expert on butterflies at UC Davis. "This may be the biggest migration of modern times," Shapiro said. Shapiro said he is...

How monarch butterflies are wired for navigation

...al migration from North America to Mexico, monarch butterflies are known to use the angle of polarized sunlight a...creature's circadian clock--a critical link if the butterflies are to compensate for the time of day in using their "sun compass." The researchers' techniques inc...

Gene therapy advance treats hemophilia in mouse models

...r "coat," from a baculovirus, a virus that infects butterflies and moths, onto another modified virus. This hybrid vehicle could more easily attach to certain liver cells and allow the genes within the vehicle to enter the cells. The genes then caused the liver cells to make the protein that prevents bleeding. ...

Expanding forests darken the outlook for butterflies, study shows

...anadian Rockies are stifling the mating choices of butterflies in the region, say University of Alberta researche...ne pool, creating a pattern that could lead to the butterflies being less able to survive, said Dr. Jens Roland, a biological scientist at the University of Albert...

Female butterflies go for sparkle -- not size -- when choosing to mate

...e eyespots on a male butterfly's wings when female butterflies consider potential mates. Instead, females are at...tivity. "When there was no UV reflectivity, which butterflies can see, females registered a strong distaste," said Monteiro. "Selection against the absence of UV ...

UF study first to quantify validity of DNA I.D. tool using marine snails

...ir work as well, Meyer said. "Scientists studying butterflies are able to link caterpillars to adults in the field without having to rear them in the lab anymore to see them pupate and grow up," he said. "They can just sequence the caterpillar and link it to the adult butterfly." Probably the most common appli...

Why the Amazon rainforest is so rich in species

...evolution. He said: "Different types of rainforest butterflies in the Amazon basin are evolving at very different...olving species, such as the Amazonian tiger-stripe butterflies [the genus Melinaea], many of whose species are only a few hundred thousand years old. Other groups ...

New discovery: Molecular variation in one gene affects the growth of natural populations

...ous studies on the Glanville fritillary and Colias butterflies that the individuals' Pgi genotype affects their flight metabolic rate and reproductive performance. The present result proves that these differences between individuals also have repercussions at the population level. The role of Pgi is emphasised ...

Butterflies lose body fat during metamorphosis

...oup of scientists from Oregon have discovered that butterflies experience a great loss in body fat during metamor...penditure, Connor and his colleagues surmised that butterflies experience a great loss in body fat during metamorphosis. Using the Blue Morpho butterfly from the ...

Poison dart frog mimics gain when birds learn to stay away

... naturalist Henry Bates first described mimicry in butterflies over 100 years ago. His theory, known as Batesian mimicry, describes how edible species can gain protection from predators by looking like toxic species. ...

BGSU biologist trying to crack microscopic code

...that "keeps the dogs out of the roses but lets the butterflies through." A short distance separates the outer membrane and the rest of the organism. How the bacteria maintain their barrier when it's physically removed from the rest of the cell, and thus separated from its energy source, is where his interest l...

Butterfly farming to help save rain forest

...North Rupununi District is a rich source of exotic butterflies that are sought after by many western butterfly farms and other institutions that exhibit collections of live butterflies. Each individual butterfly pupa that they can ship to one of these customers can be worth between 2 and 5 UK pounds. The creati...

Where have all the butterflies gone?

...6 is shaping up as the worst year for California's butterflies in almost four decades, according to Art Shapiro, ...nd from last spring, when millions of painted lady butterflies migrated through the Central Valley. But other species have seen steep declines in recent years and ...

Some butterflies travel farther, reproduce faster

...ical differences among female Glanville fritillary butterflies that allows some to move away from their birth place and establish new colonies. These venturesome butterflies are stronger fliers and reproduce more quickly compared to their less mobile female relatives. The ...

Fruit fly gene research may shed light on human disease processes

...rickson, "fruit flies share the same life cycle as butterflies ?they're just not as pretty." ...

Some caterpillers just don't want to grow up

... international project on the ecology of Maculinea butterflies has now brought together the CEH team with theoreticians from the universities of Würzburg and Montpellier to investigate this problem. Together they have compiled various potential adaptive explanations for the evolution of such strategies into a ge...

Male-killing bacteria makes female butterflies more promiscuous

... smaller sperm packages. Unfortunately, the female butterflies instinctively know that the packages are smaller a...tudy, said: "It's amazing that the numbers of male butterflies can get so low and yet the population is still sustainable and stable. You don't need many male butt...

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