Two butterflies turn into one

Lycaeides Melissa
(Photo: Newscientist)

Scientists have discovered a new butterfly in the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the western United States. This creature is the result of the mating process between two genetically distinct butterflies.

Lycaeides Melissa and Lycaeides idas are two completely different butterfly species of genetic structure and rarely mate with each other. However, Zachariah Gompert and biologists at Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas, discovered that when these two species mate, they can give birth.

This is a rare phenomenon. Normally, new species are variants of the same species, not the mating result of two different species.

The genome of the new butterfly, which has yet to be named, is a mixture of ingredients

Lycaeides species idas
(Photo: Newscientist)

gene gene of both parents and Gompert revealed. But they cannot produce the next generation if they mate with a different species of their father or mother.

  Researchers believe that new butterflies may have been born through natural selection in a harsh environment. In this case, it is the habitat in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Their parents, Lycaeides Melissa and Lycaeides idas , live at two different heights.

Lycaeides Melissa lives on the eastern flank of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, while Lycaeides idas live in lawns on the western flank. New butterflies live above the treetops, that is, between their father and mother's living areas.

This is not the first time scientists have observed a different hybrid phenomenon in butterflies. In June of this year, it was discovered that a new butterfly belongs to the Heliconius group - famous for its colorful colors on the wings - in South America was born after mating between two related species. genetic.

Breeding results between Lycaeides Melissa and Lycaeides idas.
(Photo: Newscientist)

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