Amino acids in nectar enhance butterfly fecundity: A long awaited link
The fascinating interactions between flowers and their pollinators have resulted in a spectacular diversity of plants. In order to entice pollinators such as bees, flies or butterflies to visit and successfully pollinate their flowers, plants have evolved intriguing mechanisms and attractants, of which nectar is best known. Thirty years ago, researchers discovered that nectars of flowers...Butterfly migration could be largest known
Millions of painted lady butterflies that fluttered into California's Central Valley in the last week of March could be just the advance guard of one of the largest migrations of the species on record, said Arthur Shapiro, a professor and expert on butterflies at UC Davis. Shapiro said he is getting reports of "bill...Gene needed for butterfly transformation also key for insects like grasshoppers
It is a marvel of nature that a creature such as a caterpillar changes into something quite different, a butterfly. Contrast that with a grasshopper, which looks largely the same from the time it hatches through its adult stage. New University of Washington research shows that a regulatory gene named broad, known to be necessary for development of insects that undergo complete metamorphos...Butterfly farming to help save rain forest
Researchers at the University of Warwick's plant research arm Warwick HRI have received a £295,000 Darwin initiative grant to develop a butterfly farming industry in Guyana that will help support 5000 people in 16 rainforest communities and help save the rainforest itself. The University of Warwick team will work with the Iwokrama International Centre for Rain Forest Conservation in Guyana...