Articles
| Article | Summary |
 The hot and cold of butterfly dancing – Guardian.co.uk 1/2/11 |
Adult butterflies are highly visual animals, relying on their keen eyesight to locate and identify appropriate mates by looking at and comparing their wing colours and patterns. |
| Well-equipped travelers: Monarch butterflies and their sun compass machinery – Umass Medical School 1/26/11 |
Steven Reppert, MD is recognized as a pioneer in the effort to understand the monarch butterfly’s spectacular annual mass migration from eastern North America to central Mexico |
| Gender-bending butterflies observed in Yale study by Kristofor Husted – Medill Reports 1/14/11 |
If you’re a male butterfly looking to mate, locate the females raised in cooler temperatures and you can sit back and let them woo you. Yale University researchers identified this gender reversal behavior in a strain of the Bicyclus anynana, a butterfly found in Malawi. This is the first species where role reversal has been observed |
| Scientists track butterfly migration from U.S. to Mexico by Russell Wilde – News8 – Austin, TX 10/17/09 |
Interesting things, like how monarch butterflies travel thousands of miles to winter in Mexico, usually bringing swarms of orange speckles to Central Texas skies. This year, however, they took a detour. |
| Hungry butterflies swarm Austin by Mary Ann Roser – Austin Statesman (TX) 10/15/09 |
That swarm of dark-looking butterflies in Austin this afternoon? It’s not Armageddon, just time for the American snout butterfly to tie on the feed bag, according to experts. |
| Butterflies in bee-line to Mexico: Winter monarch nesting zone has become huge draw by Meg Jones – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 10/13/09 |
In the pretty town of Angangueo, which boomed until the nearby mine closed down several decades ago, monarchs are big. They’re painted on the sides of buildings and taxicabs. A monarch festival is held every winter. |
| Monarch Mania at Quivera National Wildlife Refuge by Steve Gilliland – The Kansan.com 10/10/09 |
Known as Monarch Mania, this 13th annual event at Quivera was a “citizen scientist project,” meaning volunteers were used to net and tag monarch butterflies |
| DaVinci students tag butterflies, tracking their progress on migratory route by Trent Toone – Standard-Examiner (Ogden, Utah) 10/2/09 |
The students, ranging from sophomores to seniors at DaVinci Academy of Science and the Arts, tagged little stickers on the beautiful wings of monarch butterflies, then set them free in hopes that the colorful insects would reach Southern California. The DaVinci students hope students at partnering schools in Southern California will find the tagged butterflies so their migratory progress and data can be tracked and recorded. |
| UK Butterfly invasion continues into autumn - SurfBirds News 10/3/09 |
Britain is experiencing an autumn invasion of butterflies, long after butterfly migration from Europe has usually ceased. It comes at the end of a summer which has seen the biggest migration of butterflies into the UK for more than decade. |
| Butterfly mystery by BRIAN NEARING – Times Union, Albany, NY 10/1/09 | It’s been 17 years since the tiny Karner blue butterfly, a resident and symbol of rare inland pine barrens in the Capital Region, went on the federal endangered species list. Now, despite years of efforts to save the butterflies, including the creation of a 3,000-acre preserve in Albany County to protect their habitat, their numbers continue to dwindle. |
| Butterfly GPS (Photos, Diagram) Migration Secrets by Gene Byrd – The National Ledger 9/28/09 |
GPS has saved many drivers from getting lost – does a butterfly have a built in GPS system? Scientists have finally located the 24-hour clock that guides the migration of monarch butterflies. According to an Associated Press Science report, “Antenna sensors turn out to be key to Monarch butterflies finding their way to Mexico.” |
| Where the Monarchs Hang in Mexico by Silvia Uribe – Santa Barbara Independent 9/27/09 |
Here in Goleta, as most know, we have a monarch sanctuary, officially known as the Coronado Butterfly Preserve, on the Ellwood Mesa, close to the bluffs. |
| Butterfly antennas key to navigating in migration by RANDOLPH E. SCHMID – AP 9/24/09 |
Millions of Monarch butterflies migrate to Mexico for the winter and scientists have long speculated on how the insects find their way. Turns out, their antennas are the key. How do we know? Well, researchers painted butterfly antennas black, and the insects got lost |
| Monarch migration underway by Theresa Friday - Santa Rosa Gazette September 29, 2009 |
Every fall, a magical event takes place in the animal world. A small, yet amazing, creature may be traveling over your own head right now or visiting your backyard on a mystical journey home. The annual monarch butterfly migration to Mexico is underway |
| UGA researcher discovers change in butterfly ratios by JUSTIN CREWS – redandblack.com 9/30/09 |
Andy Davis – a doctoral candidate in the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources – discovered that female to male ratios for Monarch butterflies east of the Rocky Mountains have been gradually changing in favor of the males. |
| Vast butterfly migration reported in the Bay Area by Lisa M. Krieger – Mercury News 3/31/2009 |
Like autumn leaves blowing across a spring landscape, millions of small orange butterflies are fluttering through the Bay Area. |
| Young Butterflies Trick Ants Into Raising Them - Discovery Channel Feb. 4, 2009 |
Flitting across your yard, butterflies seem friendly and harmless. But at least one type has learned to raise its young as parasites, tricking ants into feeding it and giving special treatment. |
| It’s In His Smell: Female Moths Can Discern Male’s Ancestry, Age And Possibly Reproductive Fitness From His Smell – ScienceDaily Mar. 9, 2009 |
A female moth selects a mate based on the scent of his pheromones. |
| Can Moths Or Butterflies Remember What They Learned As Caterpillars? – ScienceDaily Mar. 8, 2008 |
Scientists at Georgetown University recently discovered that a moth can indeed remember what it learned as a caterpillar. |
| Pigmentation In Some Butterfly Wings Created By Nanostructures – ScienceDaily January 22, 2008 |
Nowhere in nature is there so much beautiful colour as on the wings of butterflies. Scientists, however, are still baffled about exactly how these colours are created. |
| Distribution Of A Species Of Butterfly Predicted Using Geometric Variables – ScienceDaily July 18, 2008 |
Biologists have recently explored the distribution of the butterfly Iolana iolas, one of the endangered species in the Madrid region whose population dynamics are determined by its host plant. |
| Web-spinning Spiders And ‘Wannabe Butterflies’ Head To Space Shuttle – ScienceDaily November 11, 2008 |
The experiment will chart the life cycle of butterflies in the low gravity of space — from larvae to pupa to butterfly to egg — and compare it with that of earthbound butterflies |
| Masters Of Disguise: Secrets Of Nature’s ‘Great Pretenders’ Revealed – ScienceDaily Feb. 26, 2008 |
The mocker swallowtail butterfly, Papilio dardanus, is unusual because it emerges from its chrysalis with one of a large number of different possible wing patterns and colors. |
| Mutualism by Natural Selection: Imitation is Not Just Flattery for Amazon Butterfly Species - ScienceDaily Dec. 8, 2008 |
A new article considers an aspect of the natural world that, like survival of the fittest individual, is explained by natural selection: namely, mutualism — an interaction between species that has benefits for both. |
| Brown Argus Butterfly Sees Positive Effects of Climate Change – ScienceDaily June 9, 2008 |
Global warming is generally thought to have a negative affect on the habitats of many animals and plants. Not for the Brown Argus butterfly, however. This insect seems to be bucking the trend and expanding its numbers quicker and more effectively, according to new research. |
| Molecular Basis Of Monarch Butterfly Migration Discovered – ScienceDaily Jan. 9, 2008 |
Over the past two decades, scientists have begun to unveil the journey for what it is: a spectacular result of biology, driven by an intricate molecular mechanism in a tiny cluster of cells in the butterfly brain. |
| High-flying Moths Don’t Just Go With The Flow - ScienceDaily Apr. 7, 2008 |
Enormous numbers of migratory moths that fly high above our heads throughout the night aren’t at the mercy of the winds that propel them toward their final destinations |
| Highway shut for butterfly travel – BBC News March 24, 2007 | Taiwan is to close one lane of a major highway to protect more than a million butterflies, which cross the road on their seasonal migration. |
| Pollinating Wyoming by Hannah Wiest – Casper Star Tribune May 25, 2007 | Three monarch butterfly way stations were constructed at the Trails Center in Casper, Wyoming |
| Central Texas sees explosion of butterflies July 21, 2006 |
SAN ANTONIO — American snout butterflies are swarming parts of Central and South Texas as a result of erratic weather that created good conditions for the insects, experts said. |
| Painted Lady Butterflies on the Wing – UC Davis News & Information March 28, 2005 |
Millions of painted lady butterflies invaded central California airspace Monday as a massive migration from the desert began to hit its stride. The insects are on their way from their winter grounds on the Mexican border to the Central Valley and foothills, where they will breed. |
| The Surprising Origins of Butterfly Species - University of Edinburgh News & Events 21 June 2006 |
Experts have long admired it as one of the planet’s most beautiful creatures … now it seems that the enchanting Heliconius heurippa butterfly also has a colourful past. A new paper in Nature journal shows that the exquisitely-marked South American species is the product of an evolutionary process which many scientists did not consider possible. |
| UMMS researcher describes new insights into the migration of butterflies in Neuron – Univ of Mass Medical School News 5/5/05 |
In this new work published in the May 5 issue of the journal Neuron, Dr. Reppert and his team discovered that ultraviolet photoreceptors dominate the part of the monarch eye that specializes in polarized light detection. |
| Billions of butterflies begin migration – MSNBC 4/8/05 | Painted ladies’ descend on California in droves |
| Experts: Monarch butterfly population in jeopardy – CNN 4/20/05 |
Monarchs are dying in Mexico. No, not kings and queens, but creatures that are just as majestic — in the butterfly world. |
| Butterfly Migration Could Be Largest Known - Science Daily 5/20/05 |
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. |
| Emory Study Finds Monarch Health Tied To Migration – Science Daily 3/11/05 |
Monarch butterflies in eastern North America have one of the longest migrations of any species, with a survival-of-the-fittest trek that can take them thousands of miles from Canada to Central Mexico. A new Emory University study has found that these journeys may be the key to maintaining healthy monarch populations at a time when habitat loss and other environmental issues could curb the ability of the butterflies to make the trip. |
| Female butterflies go for sparkle — not size — when choosing to mate – Science Daily 6/29/05 |
Size doesn’t matter, at least not the size of the eyespots on a male butterfly’s wings when female butterflies consider potential mates. |
| Butterflies Flash ‘Eyes’ to Cheat Death – Discovery Channel News 6/20/05 | Butterflies can cheat death with a bluff, scaring away predators by making them believe they are facing larger animals, according to a new study. |
| Marvelous Monarchs by Cindy Letchworth – Misssouri Conservationist for Kids | Watch them grow from tiny caterpillars to beautiful butterflies. |
| Stalking the Wild Lepidoptera by Margot McMillen – Misssouri Conservationist for Kids |
Kids take part in an international monarch butterfly research project. |
| Blooming Butterflies by Martha Daniels – Misssouri Conservationist for Kids | Butterflies are on the move from March until late October. If you want them to hang around your home, give them the colorful wildflowers and nectar they desire. A warm spot and a sunning area help, too. |
| Shoot the Poop – Science News for Kids 3/7/2003 |
Some caterpillars get rid of their waste with ballistic force. |
| “Sperm Wars”: Voles Follow Their Noses to Win by James Owen for National Geographic News 9/22/2004 |
Males of the South American butterfly Heliconius erato inject females with an anti-aphrodisiac, which repels other potential mates for several weeks. species there increased in line with the number of extinct plants |
| Extinctions Could Have Domino Effect, Study Says by James Owen for National Geographic News 9/9/2004 |
Findings suggested that the number of extinct butterfly species in Singapore increased in line with the number of extinct plants. |
| Saved from the Fogs of Hell by Steven Neo - Butterfly Interest Group (Singapore) |
|
| A Pretty Visitor From Thailand by Simon Chan Kee Mun – Butterfly Interest Group (Singapore) Feb 2003 |
Simon Chan recounts how he chanced upon a butterfly which he could not identify while he was back in his home town , Petaing Jaya during the 2002 Chinese New Year. The butterfly turns out to be a migrant from Thailand which has migrated down south to Malaysia ! |
| Virtual migration in tethered flying monarch butterflies reveals their orientation mechanisms by Henrik Mouritsen* and Barrie J. Frost – PNAS Online 7/23/2002 |
A newly developed flight simulator allows monarch butterflies to fly actively for up to several hours in any horizontal direction while their fall migratory flight direction can be continuously recorded |
| Nature can adapt to winter extremes by Steve Pollick – The Toledo Blade 3/2/2003 |
The monarch butterfly migrates up to 3,000 miles each autumn to select wintering sites in the oyamel fir forests of central Mexico’s mountains. But in January, 2002, a disastrous combination of winter rains and biting cold killed 200 to 500 million monarchs on their wintering sites. Fears arose for the species’ future. |
| Scientists make a butterfly glow – BBC News 3/11/04 | US scientists have created the first glowing butterfly, by inserting two genes into its DNA that give jellyfish fluorescent properties. |
| Life Stages of the Gulf Fritillary Butterfly by Eric Isley |
EXCELLENT photo essay of the life cycle of this fascinating butterfly |
| Life Stages of the Hackberry Butterfly by Eric Isley |
EXCELLENT photo essay of the life cycle of this fascinating butterfly |
| Admirals: Colorful Mimics by Claire Hagen Dole - Butterfly Gardeners’ Quarterly Fall 1998 |
White Admiral, Red-spotted Purple, Viceroy, Lorquin’s Admiral: plants, mimicry, behavior |
| Zinnias: Colorful, Butterfly-Approved by Claire Hagen Dole – Butterfly Gardeners’ Quarterly Winter 99-00 |
Zinnias are a natural for the butterfly garden, attracting many butterflies through their long blooming season. |
| Mariposa Monarca – A Visit to the Monarch Sanctuaries in Mexico – Science Museum of Minnesota |
Beautiful illustrated story |
| Strategies for Survival by Simon Coombes - Captain’s European Butterfly Guide |
Insect survival strategies |
| Metamorphosis on the Front Porch by Sym | Excellent photographs of the stages of metamorphosis |
| Migrating or Overwintering Butterflies – McNary Environmental Education Center | Red admirals, American ladies and monarchs retreat south for the winter. They cannot survive freezing temperatures in any stage in their life cycle; they migrate or die. |
| Wings on the Wind – Hawk and Monarch Migration - North Carolina Natural |
Viewing monarchs along the Blue Ridge Parkway; description of migration |
| Red Admiral & Painted Lady Website by Royce J. Bitzer, Ph.D. – Department of Zoology and Genetics, Iowa State Univ |
This is a web site to coordinate observations of territorial behavior, migration, life history, population studies, seasonal variations in abundance and body size, and number of broods per year (voltinism) of butterflies in the genus Vanessa. |
| Wings Over Michigan – Monarchs by Heather Slayton |
Monarch facts and pictures |
| Butterfly Feels Effect of Global Warming by Robert Lee Hotz – The Los Angeles Times |
In what experts are calling the first direct biological consequence of global warming, a delicate species of butterfly is being driven north through California to escape rising temperatures. |
| Grizzly Bears, Shoplifters, and Avalanches Unravel the Mysteries of Butterflies by Rick Mikula |
Tracking butterflies |
| The Role of Light in Butterfly Mating by Provided by Don Davis – The Discovery Channel |
What mechanisms facilitate the mating of butterflies? |
| Tactics and Vectors by David Gibo – Dept. of Zoology, University of Toronto at Mississauga, Canada | “Tactics and Vectors” was established to encourage, coordinate, help analyze data arising from, and report the results of, field studies on flight tactics and navigation of migratory butterflies in North America. |
| Butterflies and Their Larval Foodplants by Peter J. Bryant – Dept of Developmental and Cell Biology, Univ of California, Irvine |
An excellent to butterflies and the larval host plants, with many pictures of both; emphasis on Orange County, CA |
| Stinging Caterpillars by Ric Bessin – University of Kentucky, Dept of Entomology | Only a few people realize, usually from first hand experience, that handling some caterpillars can produce some painful results. |
| Australian Painted Lady Butterflies in New Zealand by Bob Talbot – Letter to the Butterfly WebSite |
Australian painted ladies travel to New Zealand by jet stream |
| Butterfly Gardening by Vera Krischik – University of Minnesota Extension Service | Describes how to expand the habitat for butterflies by choosing appropriate plants for home landscapes. The 21 pages provide numerous line drawings and color photos to aid the gardener in identifying many desirable butterflies and moths |
| The Catalpa Sphinx by L.L. Hyche, Associate Professor – Department of Entomology, Auburn University March 1994 |
The common hawk or sphinx moth, its life stages, distribution, and habits |
| Monarch Butterfly Lifecycle - The Wildlife Preservation Trust International |
Article with good pictures of life cycle, migration |
| Butterfly Basics – The Field Museum, Chicago |
Butterflies vs. moths; life cycle; amazing bodies; camouflage and mimicry; conservation |
| Butterfly and Moth Life Cycle - The Field Museum, Chicago |
Illustrated article on life cycle |
| Monarch Butterfly – Point Lobos (CA) State Park |
Description of monarch migration, mating, life cycle, places to see in CA |
| Flying Tigers (Tiger Moths) by Charles E. Williams – Michigan Entomological Society |
Tiger moths are common, easily observed and collected, and can provide both an evenings’ entertainment and a splash of color to any insect collection. |
| Studying Butterfly Populations in Urban Areas by Joe McMahon – Michigan Entomological Society |
Although seldom reported in the scientific literature, studying butterfly populations in urban settings can be exciting as well as provide important information. |
| Butterflies and Butterfly Gardening in West Virginia by Norma Jean Venable – West Virginia University Extension Service |
Excellent article on butterfly biology, life cycle, plant requirements, and butterfly gardens |
| Penn State Study Finds Butterflies Love Life on the Edge by Richard Yahner – Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences |
Vegetative areas on the edges of forests and farmland provide ideal habitat for butterfly communities. |
| Mating Strategies in Butterflies by Ronald L. Rutowski – Scientific American July 1998 |
Butterflies meet, woo and win their mates using seductive signals and clever strategies honed by evolution |
| The City Naturalist – Monarch Butterfly by Leslie Day – 79th Street Boat Basin Flora and Fauna Society |
Monarch life cycle, migration. GREAT pictures |
| Butterfly Basics – Field Museum of Natural History |
Butterflies vs. moths, life cycle, camouflage and mimicry, conservation |
| It’s Amazing How Close You Can Get to a Butterfly by Kent Koerner – Indiana State University Life Sciences Dept. Nov 2, 1995 |
Observing monarch butterflies |
| Migratory Behavior of the Monarch Butterfly by Karen Hansen, Nicki Nguyen, Hien To Program – University of Minnesota General Biology Program |