News tagged with butterflies
Study provides insights into how climate change might impact species' geographic ranges
A new study by a team of researchers led by Jessica Hellmann, assistant professor of biological sciences at the University of Notre Dame, offers interesting insights into how species may, or may not, change their geographic ...
Jun 23, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (16) |
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Artificial butterfly in flight and filmed (w/ Video)
A group of Japanese researchers, who publish their findings today in Bioinspiration & Biomimetics, have succeeded in building a fully functional replica model - an ornithopter - of a swallowtail butterfly, and they have f ...
Technology / Hi Tech & Innovation
May 20, 2010 |
4.9 / 5 (13) |
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Monarch butterflies use medicinal plants to treat offspring for disease: study
(PhysOrg.com) -- Monarch butterflies appear to use medicinal plants to treat their offspring for disease, research by biologists at Emory University shows. Their findings were published online Oct. 6 in the ...
Oct 11, 2010 |
4.6 / 5 (12) |
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From butterflies' wings to bank notes -- how nature's colors could cut bank fraud
Scientists have discovered a way of mimicking the stunningly bright and beautiful colours found on the wings of tropical butterflies. The findings could have important applications in the security printing ...
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
May 30, 2010 |
4.7 / 5 (11) |
5
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Caught in the act: Scientists find butterflies splitting into two species
(PhysOrg.com) -- Breaking up may actually not be hard to do, say scientists who've found a population of tropical butterflies that may be on its way to a split into two distinct species.
Nov 05, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (8) |
5
Surprising genetics of the African butterfly fish
The African butterfly fish is a remarkable fish. Individuals in different populations look the same but they differ genetically by a huge amount, more than the difference between humans and chimpanzees, scientists ...
Oct 04, 2010 |
4.9 / 5 (7) |
0
Nanometric butterfly wings created
A team of researchers from the State University of Pennsylvania (USA) and the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) have developed a technique to replicate biological structures, such as butterfly wings, ...
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Oct 08, 2009 |
4.7 / 5 (7) |
3
'Supergene' is key to copycat butterflies
Since Charles Darwin, biologists have pondered the mystery of "mimicry butterflies", which survive by copying the wing patterns of other butterflies that taste horrible to their predators, birds.
Aug 12, 2011 |
4.6 / 5 (7) |
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Natural solar collectors on butterfly wings inspire more powerful solar cells
The discovery that butterfly wings have scales that act as tiny solar collectors has led scientists in China and Japan to design a more efficient solar cell that could be used for powering homes, businesses, ...
Feb 05, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (7) |
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Can biodiversity persist in the face of climate change?
(PhysOrg.com) -- Predictions made over the last decade about the impacts of climate change on biodiversity may be exaggerated, according to a paper published in the journal Science.
Nov 06, 2009 |
3.2 / 5 (9) |
2
Rainbows without pigments offer new defense against fraud
Scientists from the University of Sheffield have developed pigment-free, intensely coloured polymer materials, which could provide new, anti-counterfeit devices on passports or banknotes due to their difficulty ...
May 18, 2011 |
4.8 / 5 (6) |
6
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Hearing on the wing: New structure discovered in butterfly ears
(PhysOrg.com) -- A clever structure in the ear of a tropical butterfly that potentially makes it able to distinguish between high and low pitch sounds has been discovered by scientists from the University ...
Oct 21, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (6) |
0
Butterfly experiment a prairie masterpiece in the making
After waiting for a warm, summery day, biologist Doug Taron and a handful of colleagues fanned out through a thousand acres of restored prairie this month, stroking plants with delicate paintbrushes in hopes of adding a little ...
Sep 28, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (5) |
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Fruit flies watch the sky to stay on course
Insects, equipped with complex compound eyes, can maintain a constant heading in their travels, some of them for thousands of miles. New research demonstrates that fruit flies keep their bearings by using ...
Jan 17, 2012 |
4.6 / 5 (5) |
1
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Monarch butterflies reveal a novel way in which animals sense the Earth's magnetic field
Building on prior investigation into the biological mechanisms through which monarch butterflies are able to migrate up to 2,000 miles from eastern North America to a particular forest in Mexico each year, ...
Jan 25, 2010 |
3.8 / 5 (5) |
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Butterfly
A butterfly is an insect of the order Lepidoptera. Like all Lepidoptera, butterflies are notable for their unusual life cycle with a larval caterpillar stage, an inactive pupal stage, and a spectacular metamorphosis into a familiar and colourful winged adult form. Most species are day-flying so they regularly attract attention. The diverse patterns formed by their brightly coloured wings and their erratic yet graceful flight have made butterfly watching a hobby.
Butterflies comprise the true butterflies (superfamily Papilionoidea), the skippers (superfamily Hesperioidea) and the moth-butterflies (superfamily Hedyloidea). Butterflies exhibit polymorphism, mimicry and aposematism. Some migrate over long distances. Some butterflies have evolved symbiotic and parasitic relationships with social insects such as ants. Butterflies are important economically as agents of pollination. In addition, a few species are pests, because they can damage domestic crops and trees in their larval stage.
Culturally, butterflies are a popular motif in the visual and literary arts.
For more information about Butterfly, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
