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Wild Things:
Life as We Know It
Butterflies, clicking antelopes, creatures of the deep and more
By Amanda Bensen, T.A. Frail, Megan Gambino, Anika Gupta and Abigail Tucker
Smithsonian magazine, January 2009
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A study shows that cabbage white butterflies with their hindwings removed could fly as far and as high as before. (JoeLena / iStockPhoto)
Why do butterflies have two sets of wings? Not to stay aloft, it turns out. Scientists from Carnegie Mellon and Cornell found that cabbage white butterflies with their hindwings removed could fly as far and as high as before. But they were slower to turn. This suggests hindwings are the key to aerial agility, a trait that helps butterflies evade hungry birds.
Additional Sources
"The thermohaline expressway: the Southern Ocean as a centre of origin for deep-sea octopuses," Jan M. Strugnell et al., Cladistics, November 11, 2008
"Knee-clicks and visual traits indicate fighting ability in eland antelopes: multiple messages and back-up signals," Jakob Bro-Jørgensen and Torben Dabelsteen, BMC Biology, November 5, 2008
"Sea Snakes (Laticauda spp.) Require Fresh Drinking Water: Implication for the Distribution and Persistence of Populations," Harvey B. Lillywhite et al., Physiological and Biochemical Zoology, November/December 2008
"Hindwings are unnecessary for flight but essential for execution of normal evasive flight in Lepidoptera," Benjamin Jantzen and Thomas Eisner, PNAS, October 28, 2008
"Daytime micro-naps in a nocturnal migrants: an EEG analysis," T. Fuchs et al., Biology Letters, November 5, 2008
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The Click of the Wild Eland Antelope
Listen for the subtle clicks of the eland bull's knees
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