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Fungus ‘pharmacist’ can cure (or kill) butterflies
Biologists know that butterflies use plant toxins as a drug to cure their offspring of parasitic infections. Now they’ve discovered that the fungi associated with the roots of milkweed plants change...
View ArticleNot all moths, butterflies react the same to climate change
Scientists analyzed how the abundance and distribution of 155 species of British butterflies and moths have changed since the 1970s. In response to climate change, some are growing more common and...
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Tiny snail ‘flies’ through the ocean like a butterfly
The sea butterfly (Limacina helicina), a zooplankton snail that lives in cold oceans, really lives up to its name. Instead of paddling like most small marine animals, they fly like insects, flapping...
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No, butterflies won’t affect the weather forecast
In the 1970s, scientist Edward Lorenz famously asked whether the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil could lead to a tornado in Texas. In the decades since, the butterfly effect and chaos theory...
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U.N. report warns 40% of pollinators face extinction
A growing number of pollinator species that are key to the world’s food supply are headed towards extinction, warns a new United Nations report—one of the first global assessments of pollinators. “If...
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Alaska’s new butterfly may be very old hybrid
Some might say it takes a rare breed to survive the Alaska wilderness. The discovery of what is possibly the first new species from the Last Frontier in 28 years may prove that theory correct. Now,...
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Loss of milkweeds means monarchs could go extinct
There is a good chance that monarch butterflies will face a “quasi-extinction” in the next 20 years, researchers warn. Despite a favorable summer in 2015, the eastern migratory population declined 84...
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How monarchs make it to Mexico without a map
Each fall, monarch butterflies across Canada and the United States turn their colorful wings toward the Rio Grande and migrate more than 2,000 miles to the relative warmth of central Mexico. The...
View ArticleMilkweed might not be the trouble for monarchs
Scientific dogma blames the population decline of monarch butterflies on a lack of milkweed, herbicides, and genetically modified crops. A new study, however, casts a wider net: sparse autumnal nectar...
View ArticleTo predict midwest monarchs, check Texas weather
To better understand summer monarch butterfly populations in the Midwest, check the spring weather in Texas. This information is among the insights gleaned from a new model to forecast ecological...
View ArticleSome tropical butterflies are flower ‘specialists’
Most tropical butterflies feed from a variety of flower types, but those that are “picky” about their flowers tend to prefer native plants, new research shows. These selective butterflies also have...
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Monarch butterflies are up against multiple threats
A wide variety of factors, including herbicide use, climate change, and habitat loss, have caused the decline of monarch butterflies in North America, a new study shows. “We need to think of migratory...
View ArticleMilkweed in suburbs and cities could restore monarchs
Scientists say converting marginal cropland provides the best opportunity for adding milkweed to help restore the Eastern migratory monarch population. In addition, planting milkweed elsewhere,...
View ArticleWhy this flashy butterfly has red and yellow wings
Painted Jezebel butterflies use the distinctive red and yellow colors on their wings as warning signals to predators, report researchers. Red is a new and potentially more effective color to members of...
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Why monarch butterfly estimates didn’t match
New research suggests that monarch butterflies’ moving away from farm fields once covered with milkweed explains a discrepancy between the decreasing population of the butterflies wintering in Mexico...
View ArticleJust 2 genes give butterfly wings their stripes and color
A pair of master genes control the complex traits in butterfly wings—one for colors and iridescence and the other for stripe patterns, two new papers suggest. “It seems like a small number of genes...
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How monarchs make it to Mexico without a map
Each fall, monarch butterflies across Canada and the United States turn their colorful wings toward the Rio Grande and migrate more than 2,000 miles to the relative warmth of central Mexico. The...
View ArticleMilkweed might not be the trouble for monarchs
Scientific dogma blames the population decline of monarch butterflies on a lack of milkweed, herbicides, and genetically modified crops. A new study, however, casts a wider net: sparse autumnal nectar...
View ArticleTo predict midwest monarchs, check Texas weather
To better understand summer monarch butterfly populations in the Midwest, check the spring weather in Texas. This information is among the insights gleaned from a new model to forecast ecological...
View ArticleSome tropical butterflies are flower ‘specialists’
Most tropical butterflies feed from a variety of flower types, but those that are “picky” about their flowers tend to prefer native plants, new research shows. These selective butterflies also have...
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