butterflies

An example of a summer population of Limacina rangii from the Scotia Sea. Larger juveniles living alongside a smaller, larval stage cohort. Credit: Dr. Vicky PeckResearchers investigating the life cycles of pteropods in the Southern Ocean have discovered varying degrees of susceptibility to oceanic changes among different species.Approximately one-fourth of all carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are absorbed by the world’s oceans. When this absorption occurs, CO2 interacts with seawater, leading to a drop in the ocean’s pH…

Western monarchs spend their winters clustered in trees along the California coast. Storms brought high winds and heavy precipitation to the region in December, damaging trees and killing butterflies. Photo: Nic Coury (AP)California has been enduring a winter of wild weather, and it’s not just humans that have suffered for it. A new count of monarchsin the state turned up a disturbing low number of the endangered butterflies. Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency this week as heavy snowfall blanketed the…

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Thursday, Feb. 2.Some of my most vivid memories of growing up in Ventura County are from second grade — mostly thanks to my teacher that year. She rode a motorcycle, she wore those quintessentially ’90s sundresses, she made learning whimsical, and she put together the best field trips. She was basically Ms. Frizzle without the child endangerment.One excursion brought us to a nearby park, where we took in a spectacle still fresh in my mind today: a…

Top 10 Animal-Inspired Robots of 2022 There are numerous robots designed quite frequently to cater to various applications. Right from navigating to assisting the doctors in surgeries, robots have done it all. Off late, biomimetic robots, wherein the engineers study the animal kingdom and how the structures and muscles work, and then translate them into servos and actuators. What is the end result? Well, we get robots that are inspired from nature, and are particularly efficient at what they do. On that note, let us have…

The concentric circles or eyespots on butterfly and moth wings—like those seen on this Suraka silk moth—not only look like real eyes but may also appear to glare directly at predators from many directions, scientists have found. This optical illusion, called the “Mona Lisa effect,” could scare would-be attackers and buy the insects enough time to escape. Scientists suspect that eyespots, with dark “pupils” in the center surrounded by lighter “irises,” look like real eyes to predators. Hannah Rowland, an ecologist at the…

Snapchat is now more of a camera lens app than a messaging app since most of us use it mainly for its funny new filters and lenses. The Snapchat lenses option, for the uninitiated, can transform your face or the world around you using special effects. The latest Snapchat lens that’s grabbing everyone’s attention is the new butterfly lens. If you had seen anyone trying this filter and have thought about how to try the butterfly lens on Snapchat, then, I have mentioned five different ways with which you can get the Snapchat…

The iconic migratory Monarch butterfly is now on the endangered species list. The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) says the species is on the verge of collapse. The collapse, it cites, is due to years of destruction of the butterfly’s natural habitat and rising temperatures. The monarch butterfly joins the IUCN’s list of endangered species Image source: NurPhoto / Getty ImagesMonarch butterflies have been a North American icon for years. In part because of its annual continent-spanning…

Last month, government officials met in Washington, DC, for the first Monarch Butterfly Summit, just as the milkweed in the “Monarch Waystations” that are now ubiquitous across American lawns began to bloom. Like everyone, they were worried about the iconic insect’s fate, following decades of notable population decline in the butterfly’s winter colonies.There are two distinct (but genetically identical) populations of monarchs in the United States, and both are migratory. Monarchs west of the Rocky Mountains spend their…

Monarch butterflies might be tougher than we give them credit for. The orange beauties made a surprising comeback in Mexico this winter, environmental organizations and Mexico’s commission for natural protected areas announced this week. To avoid frigid temperatures further north, the butterflies flutter thousands of miles south from Canada and the US to spend the winter months in Mexico. This December, authorities there recorded a 35 percent rise in the monarch butterfly’s presence in Mexican forests. They face…

Part of the May 2022 issue of The Highlight, our home for ambitious stories that explain our world. The butterfly’s wings are splayed at an unnatural angle, orange-and-black markings visible to full effect. A metal pin skewers it to the wall. Through thick display glass, I read the tiny, hand-drawn label affixed to the pin’s base. This monarch, I learn, was collected from Michoud, Louisiana, in 1938. Specimens like this one, housed at the…