Warming in Great Britain appears to have given a little brown and orange butterfly an edge. The brown argus butterfly has spread about 49 miles (79 kilometers) northward on the island over 20 years, observations indicate. Although it's well known that climate change can prompt plants and animals to shift...

This Behind the Scenes article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation. Arthur Shapiro has been collecting butterfly data for more than 40 years, and despite the high altitudes, rigorous walks and often uncooperative weather, he’s still going strong, exploring mountains across central California, pen and...

Pale Butterfly (Image credit: limpid, Shutterstock)A pale grass blue butterfly (Zizeeria maha). Dented Eyes (Image credit: Hiyama et al, Scientific Reports)To see how radiation from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster impacted the pale blue grass butterflies, researchers collected adults from 10 localities (Shiroishi, Fukushima, Motomiya, Koriyama, Hirono, Iwaki, Takahagi, Mito,...

Butterfly populations in Massachusetts have shifted north over the past two decades likely in response to climate change, new research shows. Species that are used to subtropical and warm climates, such as the giant swallowtail and zabulon skipper, were rare or absent in Massachusetts in the late 1980s. But now...

Researchers from the Florida Museum of Natural History have documented 51 different butterfly species at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, showing that the area is an inadvertent wildlife refuge and biodiversity hotspot. The base, which covers about 45 square miles (120 square kilometers) in the southeast corner of...

Editor's note: This story was updated to correct a direction the monarchs fly and when the were and were not exposed to cold in a controlled environment. Cold weather in the Mexico mountaintops, where monarchs spend the winter, triggers the butterflies' migration northward, according to new research. The finding raises...

(ISNS) – Flapping and flitting butterflies have long inspired poets, singers and even boxers. Now their motions are inspiring researchers to understand how winged insects get from place to place. As the phrase 'float like a butterfly' shows, butterflies elegantly fly around, said study author Naoto Yokoyama, an assistant professor...

Stunning new pictures of butterfly metamorphosis have been captured using common medical imaging. The images of the tiny insects, which are described today (May 14) in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, were taken with a CT scanner that has the resolution to image insects as small as 0.2...

Painted Lady (Image credit: MarkMirror | Shutterstock.com)In a May 2013 paper, researchers at the University of Manchester revealed stunning 3D images of the metamorphosis of the painted lady butterfly, Vanessa cardui. CT Scanning (Image credit: Tristan Lowe)The team used CT scanning to capture the tiny anatomy of the pupa on...

A new thumbnail-sized butterfly with olive-green eyes has been discovered in Texas, scientists report this week. Hundreds of butterfly species likely await discovery in the tropics, but in the United States, identifying a truly distinct butterfly like the one from Texas, now dubbed Vicroy's Ministreak (Ministrymon janevicroy), is rare, scientists...

Drinking tears (Image credit: Jeff Cremer / Perunature.com)Butterflies in the Amazon have been observed flocking onto the heads of turtles to drink their tears, which provide the animals with a vital source of the mineral sodium. Two on one (Image credit: Jeff Cremer / Perunature.com)Here are several butterflies going after...

When it comes to identifying butterfly species, looks can be deceiving, as the discovery of two new species in Texas shows. Researchers were trying to understand the genetic sequencing of butterflies they thought belonged to the same species of the Carolina Satyr, discovered in 1973, when they noticed something strange:...

Crocodile tears may be drinks for thirsty butterflies and bees, new research reveals. The insects likely rely on croc tears for salt. The discovery was made when aquatic ecologistCarlos de la Rosa was sailing on a slow, quiet boat down the Puerto Viejo River in northeastern Costa Rica with researchers,...

A mysterious butterfly-shaped cloud spotted over St. Louis last week was built from actual butterflies, the National Weather Service said. In a rare coincidence, a giant swarm of migrating monarch butterflies resembled a butterfly on radar for a short time Friday afternoon (Sept. 19). Forecasters suspect hundreds of monarchs were...

To stop identity thieves and counterfeiters, a group of researchers is looking for inspiration from an unlikely source: butterflies. In order to attract a mate, the male Pierella luna butterfly of Latin America uses its wingsto perform an advanced optical trick known as reverse color diffraction. Thanks to the microstructure...