animalphiles

New butterfly found in Andes

From Wildlife Extra:
A new butterfly species, found only in the high Andes of South America, has been discovered by a scientist at the Natural History Museum, London.

Idioneurula donegani is a small to medium-sized coffee-brown butterfly with eyespots on its hind wings, from the highest peaks in Colombia’s Serrania de los Yariguies. The butterfly was discovered during the first exploration of the area, which led to the creation of a national park in the region by the Colombian government.

Blanca Huertas, butterfly curator at the Natural History Museum, who discovered and described the new species said, ‘This is an amazing discovery. Butterflies are a diverse group of insects with almost 20,000 known species, 40 per cent of which are in South America. We have been to almost every corner of the world and although some remote parts of the Neotropical region remain unexplored, we only occasionally discover a new species.’

I. donegani most resembles three other species of Idioneurula butterflies with yellow and orange outlines on the wings. It lives in the high elevation ‘paramo’ forests of Colombia, characterised by ferns, orchids, palms and grasses.

To survey the Serrania de los Yariguíes, Huertas, her team and their equipment were dropped by helicopter on to an isolated peak at 3,000 metres above sea level. This was the first time parts of the highest elevations of the 100 kilometre-long mountain range have been explored. Butterflies were examined and compared to specimens held in the Museum’s collections, which include more than 7,000 species of butterflies from South America. Molecular analysis of DNA collected from the butterflies in the field has also revealed that I. donegani is a separate species.

‘New finds like this encourage us to keep exploring the world’, continued Blanca Huertas. ‘We have only recently explored the mountain where we found I. donegani. Other remote and unexplored mountains like the Yariguíes could have other species that remain undiscovered. We are privileged at the Natural History Museum to have one of the largest butterfly collections in the world. We look after 28 million insects here, which include around three million butterflies.’

New funds to protect butterflies

From Associated Press:
Mexico's president has unveiled a sweeping plan to curb logging and protect millions of monarch butterflies that migrate to the mountains of central Mexico each winter.

The plan will put $4.6 million toward additional equipment and advertising for the existing Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, covering a 124,000-acre swathe of trees and mountains that for thousands of years has served as the winter nesting ground to millions of orange- and black-winged monarch butterflies.

President Felipe Calderon said it would help boost tourism and support the economy in an impoverished area where illegal logging runs rampant. "It is possible to take care of the environment and at the same time promote development," the president said.

The new initiative is part of ongoing efforts to protect the butterflies, which are a huge tourist attraction. In some areas, officials can even be found standing guard along highways and slowing cars that might accidentally hit a butterfly flying across the road.

The plan also meshes nicely with one of Calderon's main policy planks: protecting the environment and combatting global warming. He has drawn up a national anti-global warming plan and committed to plant some 250 million trees in 2007.

While the monarch butterfly does not appear on any endangered species lists, experts say illegal logging in Mexico threatens its existence in North America because it removes the foliage that protects the delicate insects from the cold and rain.

"By even taking a single tree out near the butterfly colony you allow heat to escape from the forest and that then jeopardizes the butterflies," said Lincoln Brower, professor emeritus of zoology at the University of Florida.

Brower, who has studied the insects for 52 years, described the Mexican nesting grounds as "the Mecca of the whole insect world."

Each September, the butterflies begin their 3,400-mile journey from the forests of eastern Canada and parts of the United States to the central Mexican mountains. The voyage is considered an aesthetic and scientific wonder.

The butterflies return to the U.S. and Canada in late March, where they breed and cycle through up to five generations before heading back south. Scientists say they are genetically programmed to return to Mexico, where they settle into the same mountains their ancestors inhabited the year before.

Bees favor certain colors

Buff-tailed bumblebees prefer purple. Violet to be more precise. And there might actually be a useful purpose for their favoritism - it could help them find more sweet nectar.

Researchers took captive-reared bees that had never seen real flowers and exposed them to artificial blooms in the lab. They discovered the bees were more attracted to purple than blue. When the bees were sent to forage for real flowers in their natural habitat, those favoring purple flowers harvested more nectar.

"If you talk with friends, everyone has favorite colors, and now we find these might actually be useful," said researcher Nigel Raine, a University of London evolutionary ecologist.

Past research has shown animals often have favorite colors, smells and other signals when it comes to choosing a mate, but little research has been carried out concerning how such sensory preferences affect searches for food. These new findings suggest the bumblebees developed their favorite color over time to coincide with the most nectar-rich flowers available.

The work could have implications for other species, "with inbuilt sensory biases helping out inexperienced animals," Raine suggested. "We might expect monkey species living in thick forest to  prefer reddish colors to help them to find ripe fruits against the predominantly green background."
Credit: Nicole Milligan

Ants provide "living surface" for fellow travelers

Would you let your co-workers walk all over you? Army ants do it - fitting their bodies into "potholes" to smooth over rough terrain.  It helps keep the colony fed by speeding up the route from nest to prey and back.

Scientists from the University of Bristol say they first noticed the army ants' (Eciton burchellii) unusual behaviour in the insects' native rainforest home in Panama. To investigate this further, the researchers inserted wooden planks, drilled with a variety of different sized holes, into the army ants' trails.

They found that the ants did indeed plug the holes, but the team also discovered that individuals would size-match themselves to a hole for the best fit. The ants range in size from .08 to .4 inches. Biologist Dr. Scott Powell says, "When the ants bump into a hole they cannot cross, they edge their way around it and then spread their legs and wobble back and forth to check their fit. If they are too big, then they carry on and another ant will come along and measure itself in the same way. This carries on until an appropriately sized ant plugs the hole."

At this point, Dr Powell told the BBC News website, the ant becomes a "living surface" remaining in place for hours at a time while thousands of foragers walk back and forth across the trail. At the end of the day, when the traffic eventually diminishes, the ant that forms this motionless plug will detect that and pop out of the hole and run home," Dr Powell said.

The scientists found ant-plugged smoother surfaces speeded up the route from prey to nest and also increased the daily prey intake, which for army ants consists of other species of ants and other bugs.

Co-author Professor Nigel Franks, also from the University of Bristol, added: "I think every road user who has ever inwardly cursed as their vehicle bounced across a pothole - jarring every bone in their body - will identify with this story. When it comes to rapid road repairs, the ants have their own do-it-yourself highways agency."                     

Brood XIII coming soon

Billions of cicadas will make an appearance throughout the Midwest sometime between today and June 1, emerging from underground where they've been dormant for 17 years.

The flying insects live only about 30 days as adults and have just one goal in mind - mating. Their boisterous mating calls can reach ear-splitting levels of 90 decibels, louder that lawn movers and power tools.

The cicadas are full of protein and offer a rare feast for birds, squirrels and other small animals. "It's going to be like Thanksgiving for them," Tom Tiddens, supervisor for plant health care at the Chicago Botanic Garden, told Associated Press.

The periodical cicadas are only found in the eastern half of North America. This year's insects will be collectively known as Brood XIII.

The best place to see -- and hear -- the cicadas will be forest preserves, golf courses and any land where there are older trees where the soil has been undisturbed since 1990.
photo: AP

Spider's venom could give guys a lift

Scientists believe a deadly spider could bring some men more life in the bedroom. Men who survive bites by the Brazilian wandering spider invariably suffer from priapism - long and painful erections. Scientists believe harnessing the toxin responsible could lead to a treatment for erectile dysfunction.

Brazilian and US researchers interviewed men who claimed their sex lives had improved after a spider attack. Further tests are being carried out in the US before the substance can be approved for human use. The results, from the Medical College of Georgia, are expected in a month's time.

Are we too dependent on honeybees?

A Pulitzer Prize-winning insect biologist says "we've hung our own future on a thread." E.O. Wilson of Harvard is speaking of our dependence on honeybees as a pollinator of our crops. He told Associated Press honeybees are a "workhorse" that we've taken for granted.

About a third of the human diet comes rom flowering crops pollinated by honeybees, which are undergoing Colony Collapse Disorder - with huge numbers of bees simply disappearing from commercial hives.

Without the bees crops ranging from broccoli and asparagus to citrus fruit and melons could fail.
Even cattle, which feed on alfalfa, depend on bees. A expert at the U.S. Department of Agriculture says if the collapse broadens the country could be facing a glorified bread and water diet.

Even scientists who don't agree with that worst-case scenario say this particular bee die-off is mysterious and alarming. Theories on what's causing it range from cell-phone radiation (now-discredited) to mites or fungus.

U.S. beekeepers have lost about 25% of their colonies in the past few months. Similar collapses are reported in Europe, South America and Scandinavia.
photo: Jon Sullivan

Exotic pest threatens trees

The USDA says an exotic beetle that kills ash trees could spread across the east-central United States over the next twenty years.

The emerald ash borer has already infested trees in more than 1,200 cities and townships in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio. Agriculture officials say the insect's range could grow to more than 12,000 citys and towns, reaching all the way to North Carolina, if no action is taken.

The emerald ash borer is a tiny, metallic green beetle that feeds on the layer of wood just beneath the bark of the ash tree, cutting off water and nutrients and killing the tree.

The bug, native to Asia, was first discovered in the Detroit area in 2002. Authorities say it probably arrived in wood packing crates.

Are cell phones hurting bees, and threatening the world?

There is no doubt there has been a massive decline in the population of bees worldwide. Now some scientists are suggesting rampant use of cell phones may be to blame.

Colony Collapse Disorder first hit hives across the U.S., with the West coast losing 60% of its commercial bee population, and the East coast losing 70%. CCD has since spread to Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. And last week one of London's biggest bee-keepers, announced that 23 of his 40 hives have been abruptly abandoned.

Now scientists are theorizing radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets may explain the disappearance of the bees. The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives.

A study at Landau University has found that bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby.

The implications are alarming. Most of the world's crops depend on pollination by bees. If enough bees disappear it could mean severe food shortages. Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left".

Taiwan shuts down part of highway for butterfly migration

Stop the traffic! Butterflies are coming through.

Taiwan plans to cordon off part of a highway in the coming days to make room for the massive seasonal migration of milkweed butterflies.

Taiwan has about 2 million milkweed butterflies and they migrate round-trip from south to north each March and November.

A 600-yard stretch of highway in southern Taiwan's Yunlin County will be sealed off as the migration peaks. Authorities will set up nets to make the butterflies fly higher (thus avoiding passing cars). They'll also install ultraviolet lights to guide the insects over a highway overpass.