The Common Blue is a gorgeous little butterfly. Although the bright blue male is flashy and showy, it’s the female I like best, with her subtle variations of blue and brown. Why these variations – blue to brown – persist and vary has puzzled scientists for many years; here I summarise some recent research on…
The butterfly proboscis (plural: proboscides) is an exquisitely evolved instrument for exploiting sources of nectar at the base of flowers. In fact it has evolved in concert – co-evolution – with the flowers it relies on for sustenance, so not surprisingly the length of the proboscis is usually correlated with the depth of the corolla tube of…
This is a story of a moth, Histia flabellicornis (Zygaenidae), which is a Müllerian mimic, which means that it is an unpalatable species in the same area as other unpalatable moths and butterflies of similar ‘aposematic’ appearance; a sort of mutual resemblance society! I introduce other sorts of ‘Batesian’ mimics first, swallowtail butterflies which are not…
It has been suggested that the Common Map butterfly (Cyrestis thyodamas) – also called the Oriental Map – relies for its survival on resting in an upside-down position (1, 2). Or creating the illusion of facing the other way. If this is indeed the case, then it is not so much a form of camouflage as…
Red Admirals love apples! Or more precisely, they like rotten apples and other wind-fallen or over-ripe fruit which has sat on the ground for a while and started to rot and ferment. What they seek of course, are the sugars and fermenting juices provided by these windfalls to help them to get through the winter,…
