{"id":196844,"date":"2025-12-21T18:45:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T18:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/196844\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T18:45:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T18:45:08","slug":"9-new-butterflies-discovered-in-old-museum-archives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/196844\/","title":{"rendered":"9 new butterflies discovered in old museum archives"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you think of butterflies<\/a>, chances are you imagine unmistakable insects<\/a> with bright, bold wings. But it turns out that individual butterfly species are sometimes shockingly difficult to tell apart. Cue museum collections and genetic analysis\u2014a biological dream team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks to the genetic revolution and the collaboration of researchers and museums in various countries led by London\u2019s Natural History Museum, century-old butterflies are now speaking to us,\u201d Christophe Faynel<\/a>, an entomologist at the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 entomologique Antilles Guyane, said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cBy comparing modern DNA with ancient DNA from historical specimens, we can resolve long confused and unnoticed species and uncover greater biodiversity than previously known.\u201d<\/p>\n

An international team of scientists in AMISTAD, a new research project led by London\u2019s Natural History Museum, are sorting through the members of a group of blue South American butterflies. Using\u00a0 more than 1,000 samples from collections around the globe, they discovered\u00a0 nine previously unidentified butterfly species in the Thereus genus<\/a>. This genus gossamer-winged butterfly is found in the neotropics.The teams gave priorities to the Thereus species at risk, since South America\u2019s tropical forests undergo rapid deforestation.<\/p>\n

\"Plate<\/p>\n

Plate illustrating the forewing androconia of 16 male butterflies in the Thereus genena species group, revealing distinctive scent-scale patterns used to differentiate the species. Image: Zootaxa<\/p>\n

The team also retrieved genetic material from an over 100-year-old butterfly leg<\/a> using a cutting-edge DNA sequencing technique. With this material, they could study the tiny physical distinctions between butterflies so visually alike, entomologists thought they\u00a0 were the same species. The genetic examination confirmed the differences concealed right beneath their noses.<\/p>\n

The team specifically looked at a group of Neotropical butterflies called the genena species group within the subfamily Theclinae<\/a>, which was thought to consist of just five species. Faynel and his colleague\u2019s results, recently published in Zootaxa<\/a>, bring to light new information about our fellow terrestrial creatures, helping us understand the various relationships between species and target conservation endeavors in the direction of potentially endangered ones.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome newly identified species were collected a century ago in habitats that might no longer exist, putting at risk the existence of these species and highlighting the urgency of this work,\u201d said Blanca Huertas<\/a>, Principal Curator of Butterflies at the Natural History Museum and co-author of the study.<\/p>\n

The newly named species include Thereus cacao, T. ramirezi, and T. confusus, with researchers drawing inspiration from regions, local scientists, and the taxonomic knot they overcame, presumably among others.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the study is also a testament to the enduring scientific value of collections. The Natural History Museum hosts \u201cfive million butterfly specimens which makes up about 6% of the entire collection,\u201d Blanca concluded. \u201cWith some of these specimens dating back to the 1600s, the Museum\u2019s collections are an irreplaceable archive of life of our planet, allowing scientists and researchers to study species that may no longer exist, or are known to be at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When you think of butterflies, chances are you imagine unmistakable insects with bright, bold wings. But it turns…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[111648,111651,111652,85,46,111649,89157,141,111650],"class_list":{"0":"post-196844","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-butterfly-species","9":"tag-christophe-faynel","10":"tag-genetic-analysis","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-museum-collections","14":"tag-natural-history-museum","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-species-group"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}