Andrei Sourakov

a butterfly is at rest on a veiny leaf with its dark, triangular wings open to display the thin white bars that cross them to the orange spots at each point

a fringe of deep green forest rings the base of a tall, angular mountain peak with a fan of clouds obscuring the peak under a distant blue sky

A new study offers the first known correlation between latitude and rate of mimicry evolution in butterflies, consistent with a longstanding theory of biodiversity that can trace its origin to Alfred Russel Wallace.

Story: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/butt...

Study: doi.org/10.1111/syen...

a person is taking a selfie with a rippling lake ringed by thick grasses and tall pines as well as a tall mountain behind her

a group of people in hiking clothes are standing on a slope of bare granite rocks and tall pines with the sprawling view of a misty valley and mountains in the background

From the field ✈️ Ana Lopez recently presented at the Metabolomics Association of North America (MANA) Conference at Banff, Canada, and networked with peers:
www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/nhdept/from-...

🔬 Travel funding supports professional development of student researchers at the Florida Museum.

Creature Corner: The Atlas moth, Attacus atlas, at the McGuire Center The Rainforest Exhibits at the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity at the Florida Museum of Natural History features many species of Lepidoptera, but perhaps none are as impressive as Atta...

New post:
www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/mcguire/news...

Chilling outside of @floridamuseum.bsky.social

Monarch Migration and the University of Florida – upcoming programs and a brief history of research and conservation The McGuire Center and University of Florida have a deep history of studying the extraordinary phenomenon of Monarch migration, where millions of Monarch butterflies fly each year to congregate in spe...

www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/mcguire/news...

Our scientists and students had a busy year! Catch up on our 2025 research news on our website:
www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/

Happy new year from the McGuire Center, @floridamuseum.bsky.social! We had a great 2025 filled with events and accomplishments:
www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/mcguire/

a scan of a long snake-like animal curled up shows its skull and spine and a few objects that could be food in its digestive system

Research 2025 #YearInReview 💧 Biologists found an amphibian called a caecilian hiding away in a Florida canal in 2019. The species is native to South America, but a recent study by Coleman Sheehy and team show that they're now firmly established in Florida.

Paper:
journals.ku.edu/reptilesanda...

a person is leaning over a scanner of some kind under bright lights around her to put something tiny on the glass in a room lined with shelves full of shallow wooden drawers

two tiny butterfly specimens, one blue and one white with spots, are mounted above a ruler and several cards with species names and collection location

Alia Donly, a Utah State University student, traveled here to the McGuire Center to image and DNA sample all of our specimens of the Sand Mountain Blue butterfly (Euphilotes pallescens arenamontana) that lives on a single dune system in Nevada.

Read more:
www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/mcguire/news...

a shallow wooden tray has eight smaller white cardboard boxes in it with rows of carefully preserved and pinned small butterflies, either white with dark freckles or yellow with orange wing tips, seen from directly above

Tom and John Emmel and Sterling Mattoon officially began their work on “The Butterflies of California” book in 1974.

Now, more than 50 years after they began, the book draft has officially been published online and is freely available to the public:
www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/the-...
🦋📕

Spinybacked Orbweaver, Gasteracantha cancriformis, from today's dog walk.

This morning, front yard. Pineapple Sage | Salvia elegans purchased @floridamuseum.bsky.social plant sale

And look at this graphic abstract….. 😱🤯

Assortative reconfiguration.

Danaus plexippus aka the Monarch Butterfly drinking nectar from a flower of Asclepias syriaca milkweed (aka butterfly flower, silkweed, silky swallow-wort, and Virginia silkweed). West Virginia. Caterpillars were also present.

Asclepias must have evolved a 'heartfelt desire to be eaten' by the monarchs. Otherwise, why would they make flowers that are as attractive to these butterflies as their leaves?

Day 6 of the National Moth Week: The giant leopard moth (Hypercompe scribonia).
If parasitized, the caterpillars may alter their feeding behavior to increase their consumption of plants containing alkaloids in an effort to self-medicate. I find them sometimes on passion vines.

Day 5 of the National Moth Week: Chalcoela pegasalis; its wing margin scales resemble eyeshine from jumping spiders' eyes to (presumably) deflect their attacks.
This crambid's larvae are predators of immature paper wasps; hence it's commonly known as the Wasp Parasitizer Moth.

Day 4 of the National Moth Week: the Imprerial Moth from Alachua, FL.
Not all butterflies and moths are symmetrical, and Eacles imperialis is one of the exceptions. Small black dots sprinkled on the wings are in different places on the right and on the left. How's this achieved?

Day 3 of the National Moth Week: Idia litter moths inside a hollow tree. Yesterday, Alachua, FL.

Day 2 of the National Moth Week. Moth of the day: the fall webworm (Hyphantria cunea), family Erebidae, known for creating webbed nests.
Closeup of male's head (taken 3 June 2025, Gainesville, FL) gives a different perspective on this species.

Another one from this evening

Moth week begins with this sighting of the underwing moth in Blues Creek park in Gainesville, FL this morning.

The Lives of Moths: A Natural History of Our Planet's Moth Life (The Lives of the Natural World) Buy The Lives of Moths: A Natural History of Our Planet's Moth Life (The Lives of the Natural World) on Amazon.com ✓ FREE SHIPPING on qualified orders

For the National Moth Week (July 19–27 this year): our book is still available here in hardcover or kindle
www.amazon.com/Lives-Moths-...
or as a PDF from @princetonupress.bsky.social
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

From person who knows such things: According to Lamas (2004), the name Papilio pyrrha Cramer 1775 is preoccupied with Papilio pyrrha Denis & Schiffermuller, 1775, and therefore unavailable.

poor parents!

So very excited for the magnum opus of my #PhD to finally be out in @pnas.org. 🎉🎉 We demosntrate that mutualistic co-mimicking tropical butterflies not only converge in light microhabitat but, as a consequence, have also converged in visual system morphology! 1/n😀
www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...

shark photo from Kris Mikael Krister via Wikipedia CC

Wandering Hammerhead Worm on my window next to hammerhead shark. Convergence? It's been said that the wider head provides more surface area for sensory organs, which detect other animals, helping them locate prey.

Thanks for sharing! Possibly a lepidopteron, certainly not a butterfly. BTW, while all butterflies ARE moths, that doesn't mean that any possible moth can be referred to as a butterfly. But I suppose science.org carries a concealed poetic license.

Ancient poop yields world’s oldest butterfly fossils Tiny wing scales suggest the proboscis evolved 100 million years before flowers

Lepidopteran scales in 250 million year old poop: www.science.org/content/arti...