Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Butterfly evolution is the origin and diversification of butterflies through geologic time and over a large portion of the Earth's surface. The earliest known butterfly fossils are from the mid Eocene epoch, between 40-50 million years ago.
With the evolution of the Ditrysia in the mid-Cretaceous, there was a major reproductive change. The Ditrysia, which comprise 98% of the Lepidoptera, have two separate openings for reproduction in the females (as well as a third opening for excretion), one for mating, and one for laying eggs.
The oldest butterfly fossils have been dated to the Paleocene, about 56 million years ago, though molecular evidence suggests that they likely originated in the Cretaceous. [ 1 ] Butterflies have a four-stage life cycle , and like other holometabolous insects they undergo complete metamorphosis . [ 2 ]
English: Butterfly life cycle diagram, in English. The butterfly is the Southern Monarch (Danaus erippus). Date: 1 August 2020: Source:
The Edith's checkerspot is found in North America, where it ranges from southern British Columbia and Alberta south to Baja California, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado. [5] The species can be found in locations of the San Bernardino Mountains, Sierra Nevada, higher Cascade Mountains of Oregon to Washington, and in areas of the Great Basin, including central Oregon and the Rocky Mountains. [6]
The original March of Progress illustration from Early Man (1965) with spread extended (top) and folded (bottom). The March of Progress, [1] [2] [3] originally titled The Road to Homo Sapiens, is an illustration that presents 25 million years of human evolution.
Limenitis butterfly wing patterns are much more diverse in the Nearctic realm (North America) than in the Palearctic (Eurasia and North Africa). Three lineages of mimetic butterflies occur in North America and the evolution of mimicry may have played a large role in the diversification of this group. [9]
The name "butterfly" is believed to have originated from a member of this family, the brimstone, Gonepteryx rhamni, which was called the "butter-coloured fly" by early British naturalists. [ 2 ] The sexes usually differ, often in the pattern or number of the black markings.