Tag Archives: moths

Study Reveals Butterflies and Moths Have Used the Same Genetic Toolkit for 120 Million Years

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A groundbreaking study examining various South American butterfly lineages and diurnal moths reveals that convergent evolution—where unrelated species develop similar traits—follows a consistent genetic pattern. This discovery has significant implications for understanding how species may adapt to climate change.

Ben Chehida and others. A flight study of Itomini, Isomini, and Heliconius butterflies, along with the Ketonga moth. Image credit: Ben Chehida et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003742.

“Convergent or parallel evolution serves as a natural experiment where unrelated species independently evolve similar traits in response to equivalent selective pressures,” states Kanchon Dasmahapatra, a professor at the University of York.

“This indicates how reproducible—and thus predictable—evolution can be.”

“Highly divergent lineages often display significant trait convergence, such as repeated colonization of habitats like land, water, and air, or the evolution of resistance against threats like pesticides, drought, and heat stress.”

According to the researchers, “Convergence in traits across different species can stem from genetic changes occurring in different genes or in the same gene (gene reuse).”

“Gene reuse is expected to be more prevalent among closely related lineages or when developmental pathways towards optimal fitness are limited.”

“Convergence may happen when the same allele is reused (allele sharing), either through independent mutations in one gene or through ancestral variation and introgression between species.”

In this study, the authors investigated various species of distantly related South American rainforest butterflies and moths that share similar wing color patterns for predator deterrence, a phenomenon known as mimicry.

The study aims to identify the genes responsible for these similar mimic color patterns among seven distantly related species.

Remarkably, researchers found that distinct butterfly and moth species reuse the same two genes—ivory and optics—which evolve into similar color patterns, despite being very distant relatives.

Genetic alterations in several butterfly species did not occur in the genes themselves but rather in similar “switches” that control gene expression.

Interestingly, one moth species utilizes an inversion mechanism where substantial DNA sequences flip directions, mirroring a genetic strategy used by a butterfly.

“Convergent evolution, where numerous unrelated species independently develop the same trait, is a widespread phenomenon across the tree of life,” says Professor Dasmahapatra.

“However, there is limited opportunity to explore the genetic foundation of this phenomenon.”

“By studying seven butterfly lineages along with diurnal moths, we demonstrate that evolution is surprisingly predictable and that both butterflies and moths have repeatedly employed the same genetic tricks to develop similar color patterns since the time of dinosaurs.”

The findings from this study reveal that evolution may not always be random and could be more predictable than previously believed.

Professor Joanna Meyer from the Wellcome Sanger Institute remarked: “All these distantly related butterflies and moths are toxic and unpalatable to birds that attempt to consume them.”

“Their similarities are advantageous; if birds recognize a specific color pattern as indicating ‘don’t eat us, we are poisonous’, it benefits other species to exhibit the same warning colors.”

“Our research illustrates that these warning colors are remarkably optimal. With a highly conserved genetic basis over 120 million years, evolving these similar color patterns could be quite straightforward.”

The results are published in the journal PLoS Biology.

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Y. Ben Chehida et al. 2026. Convergent mimic coloration in lepidopterans over 120 million years of evolution is underpinned by genetic parallelism. PLoS Biol 24 (4): e3003742; doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003742

Source: www.sci.news

Scientists Reveal How Bogon Moths Navigate Using the Starry Night Sky as a Compass

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Every spring, billions of Bogong moths (Agrotis infusa) migrate from their breeding grounds in southeastern Australia, covering distances of up to 1,000 km to reach previously unvisited locations.

The Bogong Moth utilizes stellar cues and Earth’s magnetic fields to develop a precise navigation system for long-distance night travel. Image credits: Lucinda Gibson & Ken Walker, Museum Victoria / CC by 3.0.

“While we already knew that certain birds and humans can navigate by stars, this is the first evidence showing that insects can do the same,” noted Professor Eric Warrant from the Australian National University and the University of South Australia.

“Bogong moths are remarkably precise navigators. They use stellar patterns as compasses, adjusting their course according to seasonal changes and the time of night.”

“Each spring, billions of Bogong moths emerge from their breeding sites in southeastern Australia, traveling up to 1,000 km to specific caves and rocky outcrops in the Australian Alps.”

“The moths remain dormant in cool, dark shelters throughout the summer and then return in autumn to breed and die.”

Researchers utilized advanced flight simulators and recorded brain activity in a controlled, magnetically neutral environment to study the moths’ navigation under various conditions.

Even without the natural starry sky or magnetic fields, the moths consistently flew in the correct seasonal direction.

They reversed their flight path when the night sky was rotated by 180 degrees, but became disoriented when the stars were jumbled.

“This demonstrates they aren’t merely flying toward the brightest light or relying on simple visual indicators,” Professor Warrant remarked.

“They interpret specific patterns in the night sky to establish their geographical bearings, similar to migratory birds.”

Remarkably, when the stars were obscured by clouds, the moths relied solely on Earth’s magnetic field for navigation.

This dual navigational system guarantees reliable orientation in diverse conditions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqig_xbufe0

Professor Warrant and his team explored the neurological basis of this behavior and discovered specialized neurons in the moths’ brains that respond to star patterns.

These neurons, located in regions responsible for navigation and steering, are most active when the moth faces south.

“This directional tuning indicates that the Bogong moth’s brain encodes celestial information in an exceptionally sophisticated manner,” added Professor Warrant.

“This discovery exemplifies the complex navigational capabilities inherent in the brains of small insects.”

The findings could have implications for robotics, drone navigation, and conservation strategies for species threatened by habitat destruction or climate change.

Bogong moth populations have dramatically declined in recent years, prompting their listing as vulnerable.

This research underscores the necessity of protecting their migratory paths and the dark skies they depend on.

“This insight isn’t merely academic; it illustrates how animals perceive their surroundings,” Professor Warrant stated.

“The night sky has guided human explorers for millennia, and now we understand it also guides moths.”

This study was published this week in the journal Nature.

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D. Drayer et al. Bogong Moths utilize a star compass for long-distance navigation at night. Nature Published online on June 18th, 2025. doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09135-3

Source: www.sci.news

Australian Moths Navigate 1000 km Journeys Using the Stars as Their Compass

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Bogong moths seek refuge in cooler caves during the summer

Ajay Narendra/Macquarie University, Australia

Traveling distances exceeding 1,000 kilometers to escape the summer heat, Australia’s moths have been identified as the first invertebrates to utilize stars for navigation on long migrations.

Every spring, billions of bogong moths (Agrotis infusa) embark from various regions of southern Australia, surviving the winter as caterpillars by feeding on vegetation before retreating to the cool caves of Australia’s Alpine regions. Once in the caves, they enter a state of dormancy known as estivation until they return to breeding grounds.

The recent decline of these moth populations has led to inquiries about their navigation methods in reaching high-altitude caves, as noted by Andrea Aden from the Francis Crick Institute in London.

Previous studies have demonstrated their ability to use Earth’s electromagnetic fields but only in conjunction with visible landmarks. Aden and her team sought to explore other potential cues that moths might use for navigation.

“When you venture into the Australian bush at night, one of the most striking visual markers is the Milky Way,” she explains. “We know that diurnal migratory birds rely on the sun, so testing whether moths use the starry sky seemed like a logical step.”

To investigate, the team employed light traps to capture moths during migration and transported them to a laboratory. There, they were placed in a Perspex arena with images of a night sky projected overhead. Moths were free to choose their flight direction based on the sky images while the Earth’s magnetic field was neutralized using a Helmholtz coil.

Experiments revealed that moths did utilize a stellar compass, according to team member Eric Warrant from Lund University, Sweden. “When the tethered moths were placed under a realistic starry sky, they oriented themselves towards their migratory direction,” he states. “They achieved this solely with the assistance of these stars, independent of other visual cues and the magnetic field.”

Caption: Aestivating moths in alpine caves during summer (roughly 17,000 per square meter, with millions in each cave) Copyright: Eric Warrant

Eric Warrant

When the simulated starry sky was rotated 180 degrees, the moth flew in the opposite direction. Randomizing the star placements in the image left them disoriented.

In a subsequent experiment, very thin electrodes were implanted in the moth’s brain, revealing changes in neural activity as the projected starfield was rotated.

While dung beetles are known to maintain a consistent bearing using the Milky Way, no other insect species has previously demonstrated this level of celestial navigation.

“The bogong moth is the first invertebrate documented with the ability to navigate long distances using stars as a compass—a phenomenon previously recognized only in certain birds and humans,” Warrant states. “This capability is truly remarkable.”

Another insect recognized for its extensive migrations, the Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus), primarily relies on the sun supplemented by the environment.

Cody Freas from Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, emphasized the incredible efficiency of insect navigation, stating, “Stellar navigation showcases the remarkable visual acuity found in nocturnal insects, enabling them to utilize various cues (Sun, Moon, Stars) even in low-light conditions,” adds Freas.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Bogong Moths May Be Using Stars to Navigate Their 600-Mile Journey

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“To our knowledge, Bogon Moss is the first species identified to navigate using stars,” said Andrea Aden, a postdoctoral researcher at the Francis Crick Institute in London, who contributed to this research.

The researchers uncovered the stellar navigation abilities of moths by capturing wild bogon moths and suspending them with fine tungsten rods inside a small cylindrical “flight simulator.”

With its back affixed to the rod, the moth flapped its wings within the simulator, allowing it to turn as if it were flying in a natural environment.

“It can rotate freely,” noted David Dreyer, a researcher at Lund University and a co-author of the study. “You can choose the direction you wish to fly.”

The researchers created a magnetic vacuum to neutralize the moth’s internal magnetic compass, allowing them to focus on other sensory inputs.

Images of the night sky were projected onto the top of the flight simulator.

During trials, researchers manipulated the rotation of the sky, noting that the moth adjusted its flight patterns to adapt and establish new headings. However, the moths became disoriented when presented with randomized, fragmented sky images within the simulator.

“The moths were entirely confused,” Dreyer explained. “For us, this served as compelling evidence that they indeed utilize stars for navigation.”

In additional experiments, researchers drilled a small opening in the moths’ brains, inserted a glass tube into a neuron, and recorded the electrical impulses triggered by star projections. They discovered that electrical activity peaked when a specific angle of the sky was depicted. Conversely, there was little response to randomly generated patterns.

According to the findings, Bogon Moss possesses limited vision and likely perceives only a select few of the brightest stars. The researchers suspect that these moths navigate by the Milky Way.

“They probably perceive the Milky Way much more vividly and luminously than we do,” stated Warrant.

Furthermore, Warrant proposes that moths likely utilize olfactory cues as they approach alpine caves.

“They are probably detecting compounds emitted from the cave—odorous markers that act as olfactory beacons leading them there,” he mentioned, adding that these smells resemble the scent of decaying meat.

These moths have a lifespan of about a year, spending a dormant summer in the cave before returning to their original location.

Ken Rohman, a professor at the University of North Carolina’s Department of Biology, noted that although he did not participate in the research, he found the study compelling, with experiments that were both thoughtful and rigorously controlled.

“One of the remarkable aspects of this study is how moths manage such extensive navigation with a relatively small brain,” said Roman, who studies animal migrations. “This highlights the ingenuity driven by natural selection.”

Bogon Moss is currently at risk and was listed by the United Nations for the Conservation of Nature in 2021. The authors assert that these new insights could assist in preventing the decline of the species.

“Moth populations have dramatically decreased in recent years, particularly due to the droughts and wildfires experienced in Australia in 2020,” added Aden. “Understanding that they rely on vision as part of their navigational toolkit can inform conservation strategies, especially concerning light pollution in urban settings.”

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Light pollution may be causing urban moths to evolve smaller wings

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Spindle ermine moth perched on a flower

DP Wildlife Invertebrates / Alamy

Moths trying to survive in bright cities may have evolved smaller wings to limit the amount of light they absorb.

Artificial lights that shine at night disrupt the lives of many insect species, diverting them from their habitats and mates, and exposing them to predators. Ecological changes due to light pollution may also have caused evolutionary changes, but clear examples are hard to find.

In search of such changes, evert van de shoot Researchers from the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium analyzed the wing and body sizes of 680 spindle-shaped stoat moths.Yoponomeuta cañajera). These moths are previous experiment Test your reaction to light.

In their experiment, the researchers collected moth larvae from bright urban and dark rural locations in France and Switzerland and raised the moths together in the same garden. In the ‘flight to light’ test, urban moths were captured in 30 percent fewer light traps than rural moths, suggesting that they were less responsive to light.

Van de Schoot and his colleagues may have found an explanation for this. Careful measurements of the insects’ bodies revealed that moths in urban environments had slightly smaller wings on average than moths in rural areas. In both urban and rural populations, this small wing size correlated with a weak response in light trap experiments.

“What’s really surprising is that despite small changes in plumage, there are differences in rural and urban moth populations,” he says. Samuel Fabian At Imperial College London. He said the study’s focus on flight mechanics adds a new dimension to thinking about the effects of light on insects. “Nature is not static,” he says. “Nature adapts to us.”

Small wings can limit the distance and speed these moths can disperse to find mates and food. But if the trade-off makes moths less susceptible to the negative effects of being sensitive to light, it could be a beneficial adaptation in urban ecosystems, van de Scoot says.

The researchers say they cannot rule out the possibility that this change was driven by other differences between urban and rural areas, such as more fragmented habitats. Changes in visual acuity may also contribute to urban moths’ reduced response to light. Other insect species may also be affected differently.

But if such shifts in mobility were widespread, they could separate insect populations from each other and from the plants they pollinate, van de Scoot says. “It could be important for the entire ecosystem.”

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Source: www.newscientist.com