Lighter-coloured butterflies at highest risk due to climate warming, say scientists

A new study has discovered that smaller and lighter-coloured butterflies are likely to face challenging times ahead as the climate of the Earth continues to warm.

Small butterflies with paler hues, unlike their different species with darker colours and larger wings, may face trouble in regulating their body temperatures with the increase in the air temperature, as per the research. The problem may enhance especially for those belonging to the Lycaenidae family.

Generally, size plays a significant role in heat tolerance for insects, however, the impact of colour is surprising and “may be a pattern specific to butterflies,” stated lead study author Esme Ashe-Jepson, who is a doctoral student of zoology at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

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The butterflies which have dark wings, regardless of wing size, consistently got better outcomes throughout the research.

The findings, which were published in the Journal of Animal Ecology, provide more evidence of how bigger wings play an important role in keeping butterflies cool and how colour plays a significant role.

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How butterflies maintain their temperature

Butterflies require warmth from the sun for proper functioning. However, when heat increases, the butterflies adjust their body temperature in accordance with the air temperature using strategies called thermal tolerance and thermal buffering.

Thermal buffering refers to physical acts like slanting wings out of sunlight's direct path and moving to shadier and cooler areas. Butterflies, which have larger wings, use the surface area for absorbing heat when required, but they are also able to relocate faster to a cooler area compared to small-winged butterflies, as per the study.

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On the other hand, thermal tolerance involves physiological processes like the production of heat shock proteins. “These are molecules that many animals, butterflies and humans included, produce to protect themselves from high temperatures. They help to stabilise and repair proteins in your body that have been damaged by high heat,” Ashe-Jepson said.

To carry out the thermal buffering test, 1,334 butterflies, which represented 54 species from six butterfly families, were caught and tested by the researchers and then released. “My team and I spent many long days running around the rainforest in Panama with butterfly nets. Our goal was to catch a butterfly without chasing it,” Ashe-Jepson said.

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