Read at Guardian

Nabokov’s Blue Butterflies

 a beautiful article read at: New Yorker Magazine

World's largest butterfly disappearing from Papua New Guinea rainforests

Rare Queen Alexandra's birdwing is losing habitat to logging and oil palm plantation

Read at: Guardian Environment Blog 

 drawing pbfo'c

 How large does a butterfly have to be before anybody notices it is disappearing?  

In the case of Papua New Guinea's (PNG) Queen Alexandra's birdwing, the answer is enormous.

Mexican monarch butterfly numbers at record low, scientists say

 

This year's 59% drop in the wintering population in central Mexico marks the sixth decline in the past seven years ~


The colonies of migrating monarch butterflies that spend the winter in a patch of fir forest in central Mexico were dramatically smaller this season than they have been since monitoring began 20 years ago, according to the annual census of the insects released this week.

 Read at Guardian

The use of herbicides destroying milkweed is directly linked to the mass cultivation in the great plain states of the US of genetically modified soybean and corn crops with inbuilt resistance to chemicals that the rest of the plants in the areas sprayed do not have. The WWF also noted usually hot and dry weather that can kill the butterfly eggs.

"It is a whitewash by the World Wildlife Fund and the Mexican government," the leading monarch expert Lincoln Brower of Sweet Briar College in Virginia said. "They are playing down and ignoring the continued degradation of the microclimate of the forest that is critical to the butterflies."

Researchers: GM Crops Are Killing Monarch Butterflies, After All

 If any insect species can be described as charismatic minifauna, it's the monarch butterfly. The gorgeous creatures flutter about in a migratory range that stretches from the northern part of South America up into Canada. The monarch is the only butterfly species that undertakes such a long-distance migration. And when they alight upon a place en masse, heads turn. No fewer than five states—Texas, Alabama, Idaho, illinois, and Minnesota—claim the monarch as their state insect.

—By Tom Philpott

 Read at: Mother Jones   

Butterfly film

Flight of the Butterflies 3D

Revolution in filming reveals epic journey of the monarch butterfly

A documentary that captures in minute detail the insect's 2,000-mile trek across North America to Mexico premieres this week – and is tipped to be nature's next screen success

The extraordinary 2,000-mile journey made by millions of butterflies each autumn from Canada, through the USA to Mexico is revealed in minute detail for the first time in a multimillion-pound 3D film. The insects' hair, scales and body movements in flight can be seen with a clarity that moved scientists at a preview screening to tears.
Filming the migration of the monarch butterfly took five years and was made possible by the development of new technology. The film's British director, Mike Slee, used the pioneering 3D "snorkel system" which can film insects in 3D "like nobody else before."

See Guardian 

#butterflygarden #ladybird

Ever wondered how to grow bluebonnets, collect rainwater or create a garden that attracts wildlife? 

The articles listed below contain a wealth of information that will help you transform your yard into a 

Native Plant landscape. 

Lady Bird Johnson's Wild Flower Center 

Butterfly Gardening

By Leah Mathison
Establishing a butterfly garden at your home or workplace is a rewarding approach to attract these exquisite insects while simultaneously aiding their conservation. Not to be confused with enclosed butterfly houses prominently displayed in botanical gardens, this plant environment is designed as an outdoor haven and natural habitat for butterflies, specifically created to nourish and protect with a wide variety of plants native to their region.

#butterflies #art #damienhirst

 Patrick Barkham loves watching butterflies zip along the hedgerows. So how would he feel seeing them live and die as exhibits in Damien Hirst's Tate Modern retrospective?

 Read@guardian

Butterflies made Damien Hirst's career and this is how he repays them: in a stark, white, windowless room in Tate Modern, hundreds of insects pull themselves from their pupae only to die there a few days later, surrounded by gawping tourists.

Read@guardian

In Victorian times, butterfly collecting was a mainstream pursuit. Local people would rent their homes to enthusiastic collectors who would descend on butterfly hotspots – as if they were Wimbledon or the Olympics – during the flight season. Small boys would catch rarities and sell them to gentleman collectors for princely sums. Collecting was regarded as the perfect hobby for clergy – not as brutal as fox-hunting but still allowing for plentiful fresh air – and Victorian drawing rooms were brightened with mahogany drawers stuffed with rows of pinned, dead butterflies. Hirst's other butterfly art on display in the Tate, paintings that feature great collages of real butterfly wings, is more directly inspired by this rich heritage.
Dead butterflies may look macabre when two-thirds of Britain's 59 butterfly species are in decline. Butterfly collecting is frowned upon today and it is illegal to catch the rarer species, but the collectors discovered much about ecology and their hoards are still scientifically useful.

#butterflies #springweather

Spring weather baffles butterflies

Some species emerged unusually early due to the warm March while others have been hit by April deluge, conservationists say Read@guardian

Kipepeo butterfly project - in pictures

Kipepeo butterfly project, in Gede, on the coast of Kenya, is a small community-based project that links conservation and development. It helps local farmers to earn a living from the forest by rearing butterfly and moth pupae for export to live exhibits and butterfly houses in Europe and America. Here are some of the most popular species that are found in the Arabuko-Sokoke forest and raised for export

Please view these beautiful creatures on the Guardian environmental page in beautiful pictures 

Children's Butterfly Site 

is wonderful resource for children and grown-ups too, a teaching and learning tool -- access to coloring pages,identification pages, answers to queries, and other interesting information about these beautiful fascinating insects.

Extreme weather baffles British butterflies

Many species of butterfly and moth have appeared at unusual times this year, annual butterfly count figures showhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/dec/20/extreme-weather-butterflies?intcmp=122

 A small tortoiseshell butterfly sits on red berries between snow showers in the Scottish Borders in early December. Photograph: David Cheskin/PA

By accident, I ran across several videos that discuss a fabulous new project: the development of a digitized online museum collection. Below the jump is a video that introduces InvertNet. This online virtual museum will comprise more than 50 million digitized insect and arthropod specimens. These specimens -- some of which are as much as 160 years old -- are held in real-life collections at 22 institutions throughout the midwestern United States. guardian.co.uk/science/punctuated-equilibrium/2011/nov/10/1

BAMONA + Citizen Scientists

Please Help
BAMONA aims to fill the needs of scientists and nature observers by bringing verified occurrence and life history data into one accessible location. Citizen scientists are invited to participate by submitting their photographs and observations. Butterflies and Moths of North America is an ambitious effort to collect, store, and share species information and occurrence data. You can participate by taking pictures of butterflies that come into your yard or you could suggest it as a school project -- whatever way is best for you please participate in this important project -- a large army of  Citizen Scientists can plot flight patterns and other interesting data on our beautiful butterflies, including taking lovely pictures and your help is needed as we are losing butterflies to loss of grassland habitats due to intensification of agriculture and abandonment of traditional farming land.

loss of grassland habitats

Almost 10% of Europe's butterflies face extinction, report warns

Insects hit by loss of grassland habitats due to intensification of agriculture and abandonment of farming land

The large blue butterfly, which was reintroduced to England in the 1980s after becoming extinct, is now in danger throughout Europe. Photograph: Martin Warren/Butterfly Conserva/PA
See the gallery of endangered species

'gynandromorph'

Half male, half female butterfly steals the show at Natural History Museum

The 'gynandromorph' butterfly emerged during the Sensational Butterflies exhibition at the museum in London

Gallery: The Rothschild butterfly collection

Harrow school to auction off unhappy pupil's astonishing butterfly collection

Specimens donated by Rothschild scion languished unseen in IT storeroom

Gallery: The Rothschild butterfly collection