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,…
Ray Cannon's nature notes 