Butterflies in Biological News

Hind wings help butterflies make swift turns to evade predators, study finds

ITHACA, N.Y. New tires allow race cars to take tight turns at high speeds. Hind wings give moths and butterflies similar advantages: They are not necessary for basic flight but help these creatures take tight turns to evade predators. "To escape a predator, you don't have to be fast, you just h...

Monarch butterflies help explain why parasites harm hosts

Athens, Ga. Its a paradox that has confounded evolutionary biologists since Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859: Since parasites depend on their hosts for survival, why do they harm them? A new University of Georgia and Emory University study of monarch butterflies and th...

Smell-wars between butterflies and ants

Among humans, making yourself smell more alluring than you really are is a fairly harmless, socially accepted habit that maintains a complete perfume industry. However, it is a matter of life and death for caterpillars of large blue butterflies that dupe ant workers into believing them to be one o...

Male-killing bacteria makes female butterflies more promiscuous

A study at UCL (University College London) finds that a high-prevalence of male-killing bacteria active in many species of insect including the butterfly, actually increases female promiscuity and male fatigue. The team found that when the male insect population drops -- killed off by the bacteri...

Some butterflies travel farther, reproduce faster

Researchers have uncovered physiological 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 relat...

Where have all the butterflies gone?

Cold, wet conditions early in the year mean that 2006 is shaping up as the worst year for California's butterflies in almost four decades, according to Art Shapiro, professor of evolution and ecology at UC Davis. That's a turnaround from last spring, when millions of painted lady butterflies migr...

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

Size doesn't matter, at least not the size of the eyespots on a male butterfly's wings when female butterflies consider potential mates. Instead, females are attracted to the "sparkle" created by the ultraviolet reflectivity of the pupils, the white circles at the center of eyespots, according t...

How monarch butterflies are wired for navigation

In their extraordinary annual migration from North America to Mexico, monarch butterflies are known to use the angle of polarized sunlight as a celestial guide to help them keep to a straight and true path southward. But details of their navigational machinery have remained a mystery. Now, resear...

Sexy or repulsive? Butterfly wings can be both to mates and predators

... New Haven, Conn. butterflies seem able to both attract mates and ward off preda...terflies' wings specifically, those of bush brown butterflies serve a different purpose than the ones on the un... body to communicate different messages. While butterflies often sit with their wings folded together and the...

USGS Science Picks

...r the mistletoe, consider this: while festive and fun, mistletoe also provides essential food, cover and nesting sites for an amazing number of birds, butterflies and mammals in the United States. There are more than 1300 types of mistletoe around the world, and more than 20 of them are endangered. But don't be ...

Migratory moths may hitch their rides, but they're anything but drifters

...here had been no conclusive evidence for a compass sense in nocturnal moths used to guide their migrations. A similar mechanism had been discovered in butterflies that fly low to the ground during the day, he added, but "it is much harder to envisage how these insects are able to carry out these feats of orienta...

Coating copies microscopic biological surfaces

...faces. The researchers initially looked at surfaces with optical properties because they are easy to see and identify. The structural black of some butterflies invites investigation of thermal properties as well. Creating surfaces that have micro or nanoscale patterns on solar cells, heat exchangers, reflecto...

Entomological Society of America names new Fellows for 2008

.... Miller is internationally recognized for her research and contributions on the Lepidoptera , especially on the biodiversity and biogeography of the butterflies of the West Indies and the Caribbean basin, and also on the neotropical moth family Castniidae. Her research focuses on the life history, systematics,...

Biofuels and biodiversity don't mix, ecologists warn

...Koh of ETH Zrich looked at the number of birds and butterflies in 15 palm oil plantations in East Sabah, Malaysia...increased species richness by only 0.4 species for butterflies and 2.2 species for birds. Preserving remaining na... increasing species richness by 3.7 in the case of butterflies and 2.5 for birds. According to Dr Koh: "Rapid ...

BBVA Foundation Awards for Biodiversity Conservation

...volution of two unrelated species that nevertheless maintain an intimate ecological relationship which he formulated on the basis of his studies into butterflies and the plants they feed on. A kind of "arm's race" occurs between such species in which the plants develop mechanisms to repel insects, and the latte...

Flowers' fragrance diminished by air pollution, University of Virginia study indicates

...ferate and diversify. Other studies, as well as the actual experience of farmers, have shown that populations of bees, particularly bumblebees, and butterflies have declined greatly in recent years. Fuentes and his team of U.Va. researchers, including Quinn McFrederick and James Kathilankal, believe that air ...

Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History reveals ants as fungus farmers

...America today that are missing links in evolution. More information on fungus-growing ants can be found in the museums newest permanent exhibition, butterflies + Plants: Partners in Evolution. ...

Zoologists challenge longstanding theory that 'eyespots' mimic the eyes of predators' enemies

... Circular markings on creatures such as butterflies are effective against predators because they are conspicuous features, not because they mimic the eyes of the predators own enemies, according to rese...

U. of I. librarian launches comprehensive Web database of field guides

... in the world. There are other limited lists of field guides, for example, shore plants and animals of the Pacific Northwest or the best guides for butterflies in the Eastern United States, but none that come close to this database in terms of scope and comprehensiveness, Schmidt said. Schmidt said that wh...

Iridescence workshop promotes nature's nanotechnology

..., is truly in the eye of the beholder. Rutowski, a professor of life sciences in ASUs College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, explains: For example, how butterflies see each other enriches not only our understanding of butterfly coloration, how and why it is being produced, and what it is doing, it also contribute...

Harold Mooney and Peter Raven, winners of the BBVA Foundation Award for Conservation Biology

...author of key contributions in the biological sciences field; among them the co-evolution concept which he formulated on the basis of his studies into butterflies and the plants they feed on. Harold Mooney is currently the president of Diversitas while Peter Raven serves on its Advisory Board. Diversitas is ...

UF's new owl butterfly species naming rights auctioned for $40,800

... to name several additional new species of Mexican butterflies and conduct fieldwork in poorly known and threaten...many structural and superficial characters. Owl butterflies are some of the most familiar and best-known butterflies in the world due to their large size and striking ...

Single-largest biodiversity survey says primary rainforest is irreplaceable

...on the distribution of 15 different groups of animals (vertebrates and invertebrates) and woody plants, including well-studied groups such as monkeys, butterflies and amphibians and also more obscure species such as fruit flies, orchid bees and grasshoppers. We know that different species often exhibit diffe...

UF to auction naming rights for new butterfly species online

... is the McGuire Center collections manager. Owl butterflies are some of the most familiar and best-known butterflies in the world due to their large size and striking ...gly, Austin came across the species while curating butterflies at the McGuire Center, which holds one of the worl...

New animal and plant species found in Vietnam

...of the region. Within the ancient tropical forests of a region known as Vietnams Green Corridor, scientists found a snake, five orchids, and two butterflies as well as three other plants new to science and exclusive to the Annamites Mountain Range. Ten other plant species, including four orchids, are still...

Emphasis on conifer forests places multiple species at risk

...form the diet for many birds and some mammals. And in the conifer forests of western Oregon, hardwood trees support the abundance of 69 percent of the butterflies and moths. In similar fashion, 90 percent of the diet of the northern spotted owl is composed of small mammals that are associated with non-conifer...

Moths mimic sounds to survive

...ith bad taste. They then avoided a second sound-producing species even though it was not chemically protected. This is similar to the way birds avoid butterflies that look like the bad-tasting Monarch. The two species of bats used were big brown bats and red bats. Barber raised the bats in the lab so beha...

Some caterpillers just don't want to grow up

...aterpillar takes is determined early during the caterpillar's life, presumably by its mother." An 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 ...

Fruit fly gene research may shed light on human disease processes

...etic maladies, Erickson and Avila say their work is just plain interesting. "After all," says Erickson, "fruit flies share the same life cycle as butterflies ?they're just not as pretty." ...

Butterfly farming to help save rain forest

...Rain Forest Conservation in Guyana. The conservation reserve around that centre and the surrounding 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 p...

BGSU biologist trying to crack microscopic code

...llow nutrients in, he continues. As an analogy, he cites a house with a yard and a chain-link fence 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...

Poison dart frog mimics gain when birds learn to stay away

...d." The frogs Darst and Cummings studied happen to live in the same forest basin where the famous 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 speci...

Butterflies lose body fat during metamorphosis

... A group of scientists from Oregon have discovered that butterflies experience a great loss in body fat during metamorphosis. The details of t...Because of this energy expenditure, Connor and his colleagues surmised that butterflies experience a great loss in body fat during metamorphosis. Using the Blue M...

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

...al performance, would be of no significance for population growth. It has been observed in previous 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...

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 on...ens of millions of years, such as the clear-winged butterflies [the genus Oleria]. There was also a wide spectrum...

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

...r, this ability to detect species in earlier stages of development could benefit ecologists in their 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 ca...

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, ...s and smaller alpine meadows. This is bad news for butterflies in the Rockies, such as the Parnasissus, which Rol...

Gene therapy advance treats hemophilia in mouse models

...t. 1 issue of the journal Blood (published Aug. 19 online). The team adapted the outer layer, or "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 ...

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 ...hapiro said he is getting reports of "billions" of butterflies around Trona, near Death Valley, and in the San Fe...

Biodiversity hotspots identify conservation priorities

...pecies of butterfly, of which 45 are endemic, and plays host to one of the world's most famous wildlife 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 agr...