insects

''Naturam ducem sequentes numquam aberrarimus''

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  1. love (by ~lisans )

    love (by ~lisans )

     
  2. Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes) (by Roberto O on Flickr)

    Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes) (by Roberto O on Flickr)

     
  3. Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes) (by Pelatiah on Flickr)

    Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes) (by Pelatiah on Flickr)

     
  4. Common Mormon (Papilio polytes) (by annkelliott on Flickr)

    Common Mormon (Papilio polytes) (by annkelliott on Flickr)

     
  5. Malabar Banded Peacock ( Papilio buddha) (by Balakrishnan Valappil on Flickr)

    Malabar Banded Peacock ( Papilio buddha) (by Balakrishnan Valappil on Flickr)

     
  6. Banded Swallowtail (Papilio demolion) (by Johnny Miřacký on Flickr)

    Banded Swallowtail (Papilio demolion) (by Johnny Miřacký on Flickr)

     
  7. Common Imperial (Cheritra freja) pupa (by Balakrishnan Valappil on Flickr)

    Common Imperial  (Cheritra freja) pupa (by Balakrishnan Valappil on Flickr)

     
  8. Common Imperial (Cheritra freja) caterpillar (by Balakrishnan Valappil on Flickr)

     Common Imperial  (Cheritra freja) caterpillar (by Balakrishnan Valappil on Flickr)

     
  9. Common Imperial (Cheritra freja) (by Balakrishnan Valappil on Flickr)

    Common Imperial  (Cheritra freja)  (by Balakrishnan Valappil on Flickr)

     
  10. Common Imperial (Cheritra freja) (by bug eye :) Thailand on Flickr)

    Common Imperial  (Cheritra freja)  (by bug eye :) Thailand on Flickr)

     
  11. Fulvous Pied Flat (Pseudocoladenia dan) (by bug eye :) Thailand on Flickr)

    Fulvous Pied Flat (Pseudocoladenia dan) (by bug eye :) Thailand on Flickr)

     
  12. Little Tiger Blue - Balkan Kaplanı (Tarucus balkanicus) (by camerar on Flickr)
Family: Lycaenidae

    Little Tiger Blue - Balkan Kaplanı (Tarucus balkanicus) (by camerar on Flickr)

    Family: Lycaenidae

     
  13. The Spotted Fritillary or Red-band Fritillary - Benekli İparhan (Melitaea didyma) (by mkurtel on Flickr)
Family: Nymphalidae

    The Spotted Fritillary or Red-band Fritillary - Benekli İparhan (Melitaea didyma) (by mkurtel on Flickr)

    Family: Nymphalidae

     
  14. Research reveals how butterflies copy their neighbours to fool birds
The mystery of how a butterfly has changed its wing patterns to mimic neighbouring species and avoid being eaten by birds has been solved by a team of scientists.
The study is...

    Research reveals how butterflies copy their neighbours to fool birds

    The mystery of how a butterfly has changed its wing patterns to mimic neighbouring species and avoid being eaten by birds has been solved by a team of scientists.

    The study is published in the journal Nature.

    The greatest evolutionary thinkers, including Wallace, Bates and Darwin, have all wondered how butterflies that taste bad to birds have evolved the same patterns of warning colouration. Now for the first time, researchers led by the CNRS (Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris) and the University of Exeter have shown how butterflies perform this amazing trick, known as ‘Müllerian mimicry’. 

    Funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the study focused on the Amazonian species Heliconius numata, which mimics several other butterfly species at a single site in the rainforest. One population of Heliconius numata can therefore feature many distinct wing colour patterns resembling those of other butterflies, such as the Monarch’s relatives Melinaea, which are unpalatable to birds. This acts as a disguise, protecting them against predators.

    The researchers located and sequenced the chromosomal region responsible for the wing patterns in H. numata. The butterfly’s wing-pattern variation is controlled by a single region on a single chromosome, containing several genes which control the different elements of the pattern. Known as a ‘supergene’, this clustering allows genetic combinations that are favoured for their mimetic resemblance to be maintained, while preventing combinations that produce non-mimetic patterns from arising. Supergenes are responsible for a wide range of what we see in nature: from the shape of primrose flowers to the colour and pattern of snail shells.

    The researchers found that three versions of the same chromosome coexist in this species, each version controlling distinct wing-pattern forms. This has resulted in butterflies that look completely different from one another, despite having the same DNA. 

    “We were blown away by what we found,” said Dr Mathieu Joron of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, who led the research. “These butterflies are the ‘transformers’ of the insect world. But instead of being able to turn from a car into a robot with the flick of switch, a single genetic switch allows these insects to morph into several different mimetic forms – it is amazing and the stuff of science fiction. Now we are starting to understand how this switch can have such a pervasive effect.”

    Professor Richard ffrench-Constant of Biosciences (Cornwall Campus) at the University of Exeter added: “This phenomenon has puzzled scientists for centuries – including Darwin himself. Indeed, it was the original observations of mimicry that helped frame the concept of natural selection. Now that we have the right tools we are able to understand the reason for this amazing transformation: by changing just one gene, the butterfly is able to fool its predators by mimicking a range of different butterflies that taste bad.”

    This single supergene also appears important in melanism in other species, including moths. In April 2011, a team led by Liverpool University explained in the journal Science how the Peppered Moth developed its black wings in nineteenth-century Britain’s sooty industrial environment.

    “This supergene region not only allows insects to mimic each other, as in Heliconius, but also to mimic the soot blackened background of the industrial revolution – it’s a gene that really packs an evolutionary punch,” added Professor Richard ffrench-Constant.

    Source: University of Exeter

    Heliconius numata (top) and co-mimic Melinaea mneme (bottom). (Photo by Mathieu Chouteau.)

     
  15. Butterflies eating a piranha! (By Maggie Koerth-Baker)
You’ve seen a lot of good taxidermy this week, but nothing quite like this. Renee Mertz sent me this photo of a diorama at Vienna’s Naturhistorisches Museum, which depicts a group of butterflies...

    Butterflies eating a piranha!

    (By Maggie Koerth-Baker)

    You’ve seen a lot of good taxidermy this week, but nothing quite like this. Renee Mertz sent me this photo of a diorama at Vienna’s Naturhistorisches Museum, which depicts a group of butterflies greedily feeding off the carcass of a dead piranha.

    This is not a spot of whimsy, people. This kind of thing really does happen. In fact, you can watch a real-life example (with a less-threatening fish substituted in for the piranha) in a video taken in Alabama’s Bankhead National Forest.

    The good news: The butterflies are not really carnivorous, per se. The bad news: What they’re actually doing is still pretty damn creepy.

    It’s called “puddling” or “mud-puddling”. The basic idea works like this: Butterflies get most of their diet in the form of nectar. They’re pollinators. But nectar doesn’t have all the nutrients and minerals butterflies need to survive, so they have to dip their probosces into some other food sources, as well. Depending on the species of butterfly, those other sources can include: Mineral-rich water in a shallow mud puddle, animal poop, and (yes) carrion.

    When butterflies puddle over a dead fish, though, they aren’t biting off chunks. Instead, they’re essentially licking the dead fish—going after salt and minerals that seep out of the dead animal as it decomposes. Bonus: Some butterflies also like to lick the sweat off of humans. And a few species of moth have been documented sucking blood and tears for living animals, including humans.

    Source: http://boingboing.net