Not tonight, I'm closing my wings: How female butterflies avoid the attention of over-zealous males

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Scientists have found that female butterflies keep their wings closed when they do not want male attention


When being chased by a man, women have a number of techniques to show they are simply not interested.

Now scientists have discovered that butterflies also have a tell-tale sign.

A team in Japan has found that females of the species closed their wings when they want to avoid unwanted male attention.

They say that by folding away the wings, which often have striking patterns, they are less visible to males.

The research was carried out by the Kurume Institute of Technology in Fukuora and published in the journal Ethology.

The head of the team, Jun-Ya Ide, noticed during analysis of small copper butterflies that they often closed their wings when others flew nearby.

He decided this required further investigation so used a male model to trigger a reaction in the females.


Female small copper butterflies only mate once during their lifetime


He at first believed that the closure of wings was used to avoid the harassment of males.

But as the small copper butterflies only have sex once in their entire life, he then used the model with females who had mated.

'When I brought the model close to a mated female, she often closed the wings,' he told BBC Nature.

He then tried with virgin females of the species and discovered that they left their wings open.

'I concluded that, since females don't need more copulations, they close their wings to conceal themselves,' Dr Ide added.

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The leaning tower of butterflies: Mass of Monarchs in Mexico makes the heart flutter with joy

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER


Making a comeback: This colony of Monarch butterflies, pictured congregating on a tree in the Pedro Herrada sanctuary on a mountain in the Mexican state of Michoacan, has doubled in size


Colony numbers double a year after storm devastated population


Their numbers were devastated a year ago when severe storms hit their colonies.

But now the Monarch butterfly has made a spectacular comeback having more than DOUBLED in size this winter.

Despite the growth, however, the migrating insect remains under threat.

Millions of butterflies make a 2,000-mile journey each year from Canada to winter in central Mexico's warmer weather but the size of that migration can vary wildly.

Fewer of the orange and black insects arrived in Mexico last year than ever before, researchers said, but the butterfly colonies increased by 109 per cent this year to cover roughly 10 acres of forest.

Researchers estimate the size of the butterfly colonies based on the area they occupy in a forest.

'Certainly this is good news and indicates a recovering trend,' said Omar Vidal, director of the Mexico branch of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).


Communal creatures: The butterflies, resting on a bush, remain under threat after their numbers were decimated last year


But while the monarch colonies rebounded this winter, it is still the fourth-lowest year for the butterfly since researchers started census-taking in 1993.

Illegal loggers have picked away roughly 3 percent of a 138,000 acre reserve since it was created in 2000 but officials say they now have that illicit harvest under control.

Severe winter weather linked to climate change is more of a long-term threat, along with large-scale farming that crowds out the milkweed that the butterflies dine on during their cross-continental flight.


One for all and all for one: The Monarchs emigrate 2,000 miles to Mexico to winter in the warmer climate


'The caterpillars feed on milkweed so changing soil use in the United States and Canada is definitely having an impact on the butterflies,' said Vidal, who helps manage the authoritative study on monarch populations in Mexico.

Michoacan state is home to the country's monarch butterfly reserve as well as many violent drug gangs that have carved smuggling routes through the often-arid terrain.

While the government is confronting drug gangs on many fronts, smugglers are not inhibiting conservation work, one official said.


Fresh foliage:A file photograph from 2009 shows the Monarch butterflies gathering on a tree branch at the reserve


'We are being a bit more careful but have not had any security incident to date,' said Humberto Gabriel Reyes, who oversees the butterfly reserve for the federal commission for protected areas.

While the uptick in butterfly numbers is heartening, U.S. researcher Lincoln Brower said the insects are still susceptible to harsh conditions.

'The weather conditions we saw last year were among our worst-case scenario,' said Brower, 79, of Sweet Briar College in Virginia who has studied the monarch butterflies since the 1950s.

'If there were more harsh weather in Texas or more forest loss in the Mexican reserves, the butterflies could be tested even more severely,' said Brower who was one of the first researchers to see the Mexican overwinter sites after they were identified by scientists in 1975.


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Last flight of our endangered butterflies: Native species being forced from their natural habitats

By DAVID DERBYSHIRE

Butterfly effect: The loss of the High Brown Fritillary would affect the ecosystyem


Some of our most beautiful and popular butterflies could vanish from the countryside within years, experts warn.

Thirty-seven per cent of native species are either under threat of extinction or have already died out, a study shows.

They have been so badly hit by the rise of intensive farming and loss of habitats that they are now faring worse than any other group of domestic wildlife.

As butterflies determine the health of the environment, conservationists say their decline affects other wildlife.

The warning came as the Butterfly Conservation charity published a list of the 23 species that are endangered or already extinct.

A further 11 of our 72 butterflies are rated as ‘near threatened’, so only about half are considered safe.

The list includes the high brown fritillary, which has seen numbers drop by 85 per cent over ten years.


The handsome speckled insect once bred in woods in Wales and the South.


However, it is now found in just 30 small colonies in the South West, South Wales and Cumbria. Another endangered species is the large blue. It was wiped out in the 1970s, but has been reintroduced to chalky hillsides in the South West.

Its caterpillars mimic the scent of red ant grubs to fool worker ants into taking them into the nest. Once inside, the caterpillars eat the ant grubs.

Butterfly Conservation spokesman Richard Fox said: ‘The new Red List shows that the number of butterflies in need of help has increased dramatically in the past ten years.


Sight for sore eyes: White Letter Hairstreak Stryminidia butterfly


‘We have seen conservationists bring the large blue back from extinction.

‘But there is much more we need to do to secure the future. They are our heritage.’

The Red List is based on data collected by thousands of volunteers organised by the charity and Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Oxfordshire.

Butterflies suffer from the loss of grasslands rich in wild flowers and poorer quality of woodlands. Pesticides and intensive farming are also to blame.

According to studies, 21 per cent of dragonfly species, 29 per cent of birds and 20 per cent of plants are endangered in the UK.


Rare sight: Large Blue butterfly feeding on wild thyme


Research confirms that butterflies are faring worse than dragonflies, birds and plants, with 37% of Britain's 59 native species considered regionally extinct or threatened.

This compares to 21% of dragonflies, 29% of birds and 20% of plants. A further 11 butterfly species are classified as 'near threatened' in the new list, leaving fewer than half (45 per cent) of Britain's butterflies safe - for now.

The figures are the result of a major re-assessment of the state of British butterfly populations using the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) 'red list' approach.


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Butterflies soar again: Public count shows decline is reversed

By Fay Schlesinger

On the up: The Small Tortoiseshell, which are often attacked by a parasite, are set to flourish again


Two butterflies which have suffered a severe decline have revived to flourish again, the biggest count of its kind has shown.

The Small Tortoiseshell came under attack from a parasitic fly which caused numbers to drop by more than 80 per cent.

But it made the top ten list of butterflies spotted by members of the public last month


The orange Gatekeeper, which has suffered a run of extremely bad years, surprised experts by ranking number three, with 29,000 sightings in the UK – one in six of the total.

A rise in city habitats has helped the boom, with people taking greater care to plant window boxes and allow long grass and flowers to grow.

The results came from the first Big Butterfly Count, in which more than 10,000 people across the UK carried out 15-minute observations in gardens, parks and fields, spotting 187,000 butterflies over one week between July 24 and August 1.

The count showed that the most common species is the Small White, closely followed by its relative the Large White.

Other widespread butterflies were the Meadow Brown, Common Blue, Peacock, Green-veined White, Red Admiral and Ringlet.

Despite positive results overall, the Butterfly Conservation group, which ran the survey, warned that the situation remains dire, with 70 per cent of British species in decline and half threatened with extinction.


Surprising: The orange Gatekeeper has had a run of bad years, but ranked in at number three in the count





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