Butterflies were inventorised in nine sites of three different habitat types of the Emilia-Romagna rural landscape (Northern Italy). Sites were situated in three different landscape contexts, from high to low landscape complexity. A total of 39 butterflies species were collected, including some rare species for the region. Diversity indices and correspondence analysis showed that the butterfly ...

Most species of Parnara and Pelopidas (Hesperiidae) are important pests of rice. In this study, the antennal morphology, types of sensilla, and their distribution of four skipper butterflies, including Parnara guttata (Bremer & Grey), Pa. bada (Moore), Pelopidas mathias (Fabricius) and Pe. agna (Moore), were observed using a scanning electron microscope. Six distinct morphological types of sens...

Paul M. Brakefield and his research team in Leiden, the Netherlands, examined the development, plasticity, and evolution [6] of butterfly [7] eyespot patterns, and published their findings in Nature in 1996. Eyespots are eye-shaped color patterns that appear on the wings of some butterflies and birds [8] as well as on the skin of some fish [9] and reptiles. In butterflies, such as the peacock b...

Although phylogenetically nested within the moths, butterflies have diverged extensively in a number of life history traits. Whereas moths rely greatly on chemical signals, visual advertisement is the hallmark of mate finding in butterflies. In the context of courtship, however, male chemical signals are widespread in both groups although they likely have multiple evolutionary origins. Here, we...

The colour patterns and morphological peculiarities of the hindwings of several butterfly species result in the appearance of a head at the rear end of the insect's body. Although some experimental evidence supports the hypothesis that the "false head" deflects predator attacks towards the rear end of the butterfly, more research is needed to determine the role of the different components of th...

Heliconius butterflies have become a model for the study of speciation with gene flow. For adaptive introgression to take place, there must be incomplete barriers to gene exchange that allow interspecific hybridization and multiple generations of backcrossing. The recent publication of estimates of individual components of reproductive isolation between several species of butterflies in the Hel...

The optix gene has been implicated in butterfly wing pattern adaptation by genetic association, mapping, and expression studies. The actual developmental function of this gene has remained unclear, however. Here we used CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing to show that optix plays a fundamental role in nymphalid butterfly wing pattern development, where it is required for determination of all chromatic c...

Butterflies have evolved different colour patterns on their dorsal and ventral wing surfaces to serve different signalling functions, yet the developmental mechanisms controlling surface-specific patterning are still unknown. Here, we mutate both copies of the transcription factor apterous in Bicyclus anynana butterflies using CRISPR/Cas9 and show that apterous A, expressed dorsally, functions ...

Ehrlich and Raven proposed a model of coevolution where major host plant shifts of butterflies facilitate a burst of diversification driven by their arrival to a new adaptive zone. One prediction of this model is that reconstructions of historical diversification of butterflies should indicate an increase in diversification rate following major host shifts. Using reconstructed histories of 15 b...

The significance of dietary antioxidants may be limited by the ability of animals to exploit them. However, past studies have focused on the effects of dietary antioxidants after 'antioxidant forced-feeding', and have overlooked spontaneous antioxidant intake. Here, we found that reproducing female Bicyclus anynana butterflies had higher antioxidant defences and enhanced fecundity when forced t...