Butterflies as Botanists

Proposals by Czechoslovak Botanists

White butterflies as solar photovoltaic concentrators

Man's harvesting of photovoltaic energy requires the deployment of extensive arrays of solar panels. To improve both the gathering of thermal and photovoltaic energy from the sun we have examined the concept of biomimicry in white butterflies of the family Pieridae. We tested the hypothesis that the V-shaped posture of basking white butterflies mimics the V-trough concentrator which is designed...

Potentilla Fruticosa (rosaceae) as a Nectar Plant for Butterflies

Despite its wide distribution, little documentation exists to confirm that butterflies use the woody shrub Potentilla fruticosa (Linnaeus) (Rosaceae) as a nectar plant. During the summer of 2004, we observed 36 individual butterflies belonging to 10 species nectaring on P. fruticosa in the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico. Butterflies spent 56% of total observed nectaring time on P. fruticosa, where...

Intimidating butterflies.

Many butterfly species feature two or four conspicuously coloured eyespots on their wings; the most commonly heard explanation for these markings is that they are used to intimidate predators. However, this explanation has stood, until recently, on the flimsiest of empirical foundations. Now, Adrian Vallin and colleagues have demonstrated empirically the effectiveness of these signals in dissua...

Migrating to butterflies

Many of the stories that have appeared in this column recount the way in which the timely appearance of a paper catalyzed the pursuit of a new line of research. The experience is, happily, not limited to new papers. One of the greatest pleasures in research is to discover (or more accurately, to rediscover) a gem of a paper that has been in the literature for some time but whose findings or pro...