The Butterfly Enthusiasts of Northern Arizona will host a presentation on butterfly coloration at the Cottonwood Public Library on Saturday, June 7, from 10 a.m. to noon.
The presentation will be conducted by Arizona State University Professor Emeritus Ronald Rutowski, Ph.D., who will discuss the structures that produce butterfly colors and how they develop during an individual insect’s life, as well as the ways in which coloration affects butterfly survival and reproduction and thereby the evolution of butterfly coloration.
He will also address how the survival and mating success of butterflies are affected by their coloration.
“Since I was a college student I [have] been interested in how animals communicate,” Rutowski said in a statement. “In graduate school in the 1970s, I chose to focus on the ultra-violet signals that occur in butterflies, and since then, butterflies, their coloration and their behavior have been a major focus of my research program at ASU.”
“There are over 700 species of butterflies in North America and of those, 350 species have been seen in Arizona,” Rutowski added. “This is amazing because Arizona does not make up half the land area of North America. In other words, Arizona has an unusually high diversity of butterflies. The topographic diversity in central and Northern Arizona are part of that story and warrant the creation of BENA to facilitate and encourage learning more about the butterflies in this region.”
BENA stated that the number of butterflies has declined by 22% in the last 20 years, citing findings published in the journal Science, which suggested climate change, habitat loss and insecticide use were responsible and that the largest declines in butterfly numbers had taken place in the Southwest.
BENA volunteers will be at Arizona’s newest state park, Rockin’ River Ranch State Park, on first Sundays from May through October from 9 to 11 a.m. to count butterfly species and the total number of individuals seen over a two-hour period each day at the same time of day and the same location.
The data will be submitted to the Northern Arizona Butterfly Association’s database as well as to the state park. Volunteers will also learn how to identify butterflies.
The event will cost $10 to cover the park entry fee.
