Butterfly tree of life reveals an origin in North America
About 100 million years ago, a group of trendsetting moths started flying during the day rather than at night, taking…Read More
Family tree of ‘boring’ butterflies shows they’re anything but
Walk a short distance through the Amazon Rainforest, and you might witness what look like dead leaves launch from the…Read More
Butterflies’ ‘secret’ to keeping cool hidden in wings
A butterfly’s wings are more than just eye-catching flight gear. A new study reveals microscopic structures that give butterflies their…Read More
Butterfly expert Thomas Emmel has died
The Florida Museum is shocked and saddened by the passing of Thomas Emmel, our colleague and friend, who died over…Read More
40 years of friendship, 70,000 specimens: Amateur entomologists donate lifetimes’ worth of butterflies and moths
As a 4-year-old, butterfly net in hand, Ed Knudson set out to catch insects in his neighborhood. Little did he…Read More
New butterfly species discovered nearly 60 years after it was first collected
In 1959, a then-teenage lepidopterist Thomas Emmel collected 13 fawn-colored butterflies in the highlands of Mexico. Nearly 60 years later,…Read More
New butterfly species named for Field Museum’s Emily Graslie
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
Is Alaska’s first new butterfly species in decades an ancient hybrid?
Some might say it takes a rare breed to survive the Alaska wilderness. The discovery of a possible new species…Read More
A butterfly in hiding takes wing on social media
Thanks to social media and museum collections, a butterfly species was recognized in 2011 after more than 50 years of…Read More
New Jamaica butterfly species emphasizes need for biodiversity research
University of Florida scientists have co-authored a study describing a new Lepidoptera species found in Jamaica’s last remaining wilderness. Belonging…Read More