6
Wednesday, November 13, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Tales from a
Sisters
Naturalist
by Jim Anderson
How the moth
became a
butterfly —
maybe
It is said that millions of
years ago the buckeye on
Bela Chladek9s nose was a
moth. Bela9s not cross-eyed
today, and the buckeyes are
also still with us.
I9ve created this story for
students who are looking for-
ward to college and taking the
time to look at this Earth in
more detail. I9ve met a lot of
them in Central Oregon and
I hope many of these bright
kids are already into higher
education. But just in case&
This story started in a
scientific journal and begins
with <Once upon a time&=
That was a little worrisome,
but did seem appropriate
as the <facts= in the story
seemed worthy of discussion.
The gist of it is that a
group of very bright research-
ers at the Florida Museum
of Natural History 4 while
using DNA and protein
sequences from living insects
4 came up with the idea
of how moths evolved into
butterflies.
Apparently, what got it all
going was a head-bumping
battle between scientists on
what was happening millions
of years ago in the evolution-
ary goings-on between moths
and bats.
It is a fact that today bats
use sound to locate moths
at night and that moths use
sound to avoid bats. People
who have studied this agree
that moths slowly adapted
to bats preying on them and
evolved ways to survive.
The bats got onto these
changes and did their own
adapting, which forced the
moths to shout, <Hey! Cut
that out!=
This is where the struggle
to understand the change gets
thicker than toothpaste. The
bats apparently had begun to
use different frequencies to
find moths.
But then new moths came
into the picture and responded
by jamming the bats9 sonar.
They actually sent sound
pulses that somehow told the
bats they were not where the
bats thought they were and
told the bats the moths9 tis-
sues are poisonous.
To further complicate this
fantastic battle for survival,
many millions of years ago
a group of moths decided
to give up flying at night to
escape the bats preying on
them. They changed their
wing structure and began
flying in daylight to become
today9s butterflies.
Wow! Darwin had that
one right by the face 4 adapt
or die!
The Florida Museum of
Natural History study team
TIME TO PUT ON
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DAVIS TIRE
had opened quite a door:
moths changing to butterflies.
The scientists are telling us
the ancestral moth emerged
some 300 million years ago,
which is well before the old-
est moth fossil of some 200
million years old.
Dr. Kawahara, who is
leading the team at the
Florida museum, found
that only 240 million years
ago, most moths ceased to
have chewing mouth parts
in exchange for a tube-like
mouth part capable of suck-
ing up sap and water.
Then the team deter-
mined that the earliest but-
terflies appeared on Earth
some 98 million years ago.
Echolocating bats emerged
much later, some 50 million
years ago. Hmmm, some-
thing other than bats must
have been the reason but-
terflies became daytime
insects&ya9 think?
The team believed this
was possible because natu-
ral selection was making the
nectar produced by plants
accessible to these new frag-
ile-wing butterflies that had
better success in daylight
than dark.
They also stated that these
new moths-who-became but-
terflies dropped their night
time coloring and began to
develop bright and variable
colors for daytime move-
ments, useful for telling
predators, <Hey you! I9m not
good to eat. I9ll make you
sick and you9ll die.=
These new DNA samples
taken from all major butter-
fly families and moths have
apparently helped the team
from Florida to develop new
thoughts regarding evolution-
ary history.
The group9s research
demonstrated that moths
have developed specialized
hearing at least nine different
times.
It is interesting that Dr.
Kawahara considers his work
to be a fulfillment of a child-
hood dream while growing
up in Japan and the U.S.A.
His passion was to learn more
about butterflies and moths.
While all this work sheds
new light on the evolution-
ary development of bats,
moths and butterflies, Dr.
Maia Heikkila, an evolution-
ary biologist at the University
of Helsinki in Finland said,
<The dates derived from
DNA and fossils are likely to
be revised in the future, and a
new story may emerge.=
OK guys and gals, now9s
the time. Get yourself
together and start collecting
butterflies and moths from
the radiator of your family
car or camper. Push your sci-
ence/biology teachers into
taking you into the voyage of
DNA research. Contact pro-
fessors of evolutionary biol-
ogy in the schools you hope
to attend. Get your energy
going in the direction you
want to go.
It would be a supreme
honor for me to write a story
from your dissertation on
YOUR discoveries of how,
when and why moths and
butterflies appeared on this
beautiful old Earth of ours.
Smile, Sisters!
Hair,
Skin
& Nails
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PHOTO BY JIM ANDERSON
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