Researchers have developed a model that can recreate, with only a few parameters, the wing patterns of a large group of insects, shedding light on how these complex patterns form. For many species of ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The beautiful patterns on butterfly wings are emerging as exceptional model systems that may reveal much about how the shapes, sizes and colors of specific organisms have evolved, a ...

Heliconius charithonia is one of the species of butterflies whose wing patterns scientists scrutinized to better understand the evolutionary process. This butterfly is wild-type; the genetically ...

A team of researchers led by Jin Zhang and Zhongfan Liu (Peking University) have used the wings of cicadas as stamps to pattern polymer films with nanometer-sized structures. What does a colorful and ...

Butterfly wing patterns have a basic plan to them, which is manipulated by non-coding regulatory DNA to create the diversity of wings seen in different species, according to new research. The study, ...

Butterfly wing patterns have a basic plan to them, which is manipulated by non-coding regulatory DNA to create the diversity of wings seen in different species, according to new research. The study, ...

Butterflies come in an incredible array of shapes and colors, from the bright blue morphos to the iconic monarchs. It now turns out that the different genetic components that give rise to these color ...

Many butterflies develop wing patterns that mimic other species to protect themselves from predators. While growing complex body parts like wings involves many genes, the difference between two ...

Two newly published complimentary studies have utilized CRISPR genome editing technology to explore how specific genes affect wing pattern variation in butterflies. By selectively knocking out single ...

—a cluster of genes that is passed on to offspring as one big chunk—controls the different elements of wing patterns, allowing related butterflies to display distinct markings despite having the same ...