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Florida Museum Science

Andrew Warren

A blue butterfly rests on a plant

Life on Earth

Butterflies’ ‘secret’ to keeping cool hidden in wings

January 27, 2020

A butterfly’s wings are more than just eye-catching flight gear. A new study reveals microscopic structures that give butterflies their…Read More

Portrait of a researcher in a Florida Museum collection

Our People

Butterfly expert Thomas Emmel has died

May 29, 2018

The Florida Museum is shocked and saddened by the passing of Thomas Emmel, our colleague and friend, who died over…Read More

orange butterflies

Profiles

40 years of friendship, 70,000 specimens: Amateur entomologists donate lifetimes’ worth of butterflies and moths

May 21, 2018

As a 4-year-old, butterfly net in hand, Ed Knudson set out to catch insects in his neighborhood. Little did he…Read More

Portrait of a researcher in a Florida Museum collection

Life on Earth

New butterfly species discovered nearly 60 years after it was first collected

April 5, 2018

In 1959, a then-teenage lepidopterist Thomas Emmel collected 13 fawn-colored butterflies in the highlands of Mexico. Nearly 60 years later,…Read More

A small, brown butterfly specimen

Life on Earth

New butterfly species named for Field Museum’s Emily Graslie

March 7, 2018

As the Field Museum’s chief curiosity correspondent, Emily Graslie has plunged elbow-deep into wolf guts, dug up 52-million-year-old fish fossils…Read More

Tanana Arctic butterfly

Evolution

Is Alaska’s first new butterfly species in decades an ancient hybrid?

March 16, 2016

Some might say it takes a rare breed to survive the Alaska wilderness. The discovery of a possible new species…Read More

Pink-spot Sulphur butterfly

Collections

A butterfly in hiding takes wing on social media

April 17, 2014

Thanks to social media and museum collections, a butterfly species was recognized in 2011 after more than 50 years of…Read More

A black butterfly with yollow stripes across its lower wings

Life on Earth

New Jamaica butterfly species emphasizes need for biodiversity research

December 3, 2012

University of Florida scientists have co-authored a study describing a new Lepidoptera species found in Jamaica’s last remaining wilderness. Belonging…Read More

intricately patterned Minerva owl butterfly specimen

Education & Outreach

New butterfly species naming rights auctioned for $40,800

February 2, 2008

Surprisingly, McGuire Center Collections Manager George Austin came across the species while curating butterflies in the Florida Museum, which houses…Read More

Contact Info

Florida Museum of Natural History
Gainesville, FL 32611

Media inquiries:
Jerald Pinson, Science Writer

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