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News (Archive) | April 2005
Butterflies & moths on the WWW | Headlines
Butterflies are free, if you know how to attract them — Daytona Beach News-Journal, Daytona, FL, USA — 22 Apr 2005 Deland — The lone black swallowtail butterfly flitting erratically through Karen Hall’s yard is a harbinger of good things to come... Butterflies of world on wing in Georgia — Washington Times, Washington, DC, USA — 16 Apr 2005 Pine Mountain, Ga. — Fresh from its own six-month, $2 million metamorphosis, the Cecil B. Day Butterfly Center has reopened at Callaway Gardens, a 14,000-acre nature and recreation center in the Appalachian foothills... Painted Lady butterflies winging north in huge migration — Seattle Times, USA — 11 Apr 2005 San Jose, Calif. — It was a gentle invasion. ‘They were coming up out of a creek bed and flying over our heads,’ said Sally Brandt of San Jose. ‘If you stood there for a minute, you’d see 50 or so... Billions of Butterflies Descend on California — LiveScience.com, New York, NY, USA — 8 Apr 2005 Heavy winter rains have led to billions of butterflies that are beginning to descend on California in what could be a record migration... Painted Ladies Emerge — Palisadian-Post, Pacific Palisades, CA, USA — 7 Apr 2005 Shortly after the last rainstorm on March 22, they started appearing. One or two at a time at first, then three or four, then five or six... and before long, there were far too many to count... Butterflies flutter by — Fresno Bee, Fresno, CA, USA — 6 Apr 2005 From the yellow splats on the windshield, you might have noticed millions of painted ladies have invaded the San Joaquin Valley... Battalions of butterflies beautifying county — San Diego Union Tribune, USA — 6 Apr 2005 Spring is in the air, and so too are butterflies — millions of them... Butterflies equipped with tracker devices — Guardian, UK — 6 Apr 2005 Butterflies know where they are going. They might look indecisive as they flutter by, but British scientists now know better. A team from Rothamsted Research in Hertfordshire fitted peacock butterflies and small tortoiseshells with radar backpacks and tracked their flightpaths... Butterflies blossom forth from region’s near-record rainfall — Daily Breeze, Torrance, CA, USA — 4 Apr 2005 Painted lady butterflies emerge in numbers not seen in years. The insects are migrating from northern Mexico to the Pacific Northwest... Flutter by to see tropical butterflies — Kentucky.com, Lexington, KY, USA — 3 Apr 2005 Pine Mountain, Ga. — Fresh from its own six-month, $2 million metamorphosis, the Cecil B. Day Butterfly Center has reopened at Callaway Gardens, a 14,000-acre nature and recreation center in the Appalachian foothills... March rains bring April butterflies to Manteca — Manteca Bulletin, Manteca, CA, USA — 2 Apr 2005 The Painted Ladies were all over the place Friday... Air Filled With Painted Lady Butterflies — 10News.com, San Diego, CA, USA — 1 Apr 2005 San Diego — Swarms of black and orange butterflies saturated the San Diego coastline as they moved north to Oregon and Washington... After the Rains, Tiny Rainbows — Los Angeles Times, CA, USA — 1 Apr 2005 As wildflower blooms explode across Southern California, they attract colorful swarms of painted ladies, fueling the insects’ population boom... Just printed Proceedings: Biological Sciences 272 (1565) Tracking butterfly flight paths across the landscape with harmonic radar — For the first time, the flight paths of five butterfly species were successfully tracked using harmonic radar within an agricultural landscape. Until now, butterfly mobility has been predominantly studied using visual observations and mark-recapture experiments. Attachment of a light-weight radar transponder to the butterfly’s thorax did not significantly affect behaviour or mobility. Tracks were analysed for straightness, duration, displacement, ground speed, foraging and the influence of linear landscape features on flight direction. Two main styles of track were identified: (A) fast linear flight and (B) slower nonlinear flights involving a period of foraging and/or looped sections of flight. These loops potentially perform an orientation function, and were often associated with areas of forage. In the absence of forage, linear features did not provide a guiding effect on flight direction, and only dense treelines were perceived as barriers. The results provide tentative support for non-random dispersal and a perceptual range of 100—200 m for these species. This study has demonstrated a methodology of significant value for future investigation of butterfly mobility and dispersal. — Reference: E. T. Cant, A. D. Smith, D. R. Reynolds, J. L. Osborne (2005): Tracking butterfly flight paths across the landscape with harmonic radar. — Proceedings: Biological Sciences 272 (1565) (22 Apr 2005): 785—790. |
