9 new butterflies found out in old museum archives

What’s Happening

Alright so The team even extracted DNA from a tiny 100-year-old butterfly leg.

The post 9 new butterflies found out in old museum archives appeared first on Popular Science. ‘Rose’s polyommatus’ at Lake Van Basin on in Van, Turkey. (and honestly, same)

The Lake Van Basin, home to many creatures with its climate, rich flora, high altitude and unique nature, harbors hundreds of butterfly species.

The Details

Ali Ihsan Ozturk/Anadolu via Get the Popular Science daily 💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. When you think of butterflies , chances are you imagine unmistakable insects with bright, bold wings.

But it turns out that individual butterfly species are sometimes shockingly difficult to tell apart. Cue museum collections and genetic analysis—a biological dream team.

Why This Matters

“Thanks to the genetic revolution and the collaboration of researchers and museums in various countries led History Museum, century-old butterflies are now speaking to us,” Christophe Faynel , an entomologist at the Société entomologique Antilles Guyane, dropped in a statement . “ DNA with ancient DNA from historical specimens, we can resolve long confused and unnoticed species and uncover greater biodiversity than before known. ” An international team of scientists in AMISTAD, a new research project led by London’s Natural History Museum, are sorting through the members of a group of blue South American butterflies.

The scientific community tends to find developments like this significant.

Key Takeaways

• Using more than 1,000 samples from collections around the globe, they found out nine before unidentified butterfly species in the Thereus genus .
• This genus gossamer-winged butterfly is found in the neotropics.
• The teams gave priorities to the Thereus species at risk, since South America’s tropical forests undergo rapid deforestation.

The Bottom Line

Plate illustrating the forewing androconia of 16 male butterflies in the Thereus genena species group, revealing distinctive scent-grow patterns used to differentiate the species. Image: Zootaxa The team also retrieved genetic material from an over 100-year-old butterfly leg using a cutting-edge DNA sequencing technique.

Is this a W or an L? You decide.