Some fantastic confocal laser scanning microscopy images in the centrefold of the 7th August New Scientist. The research describes proboscis variations in butterflies (essentially 'normal' & 'deep' probing differences), from an evolutionary perspective. See https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley ... 2435.13863 (although I got there via the tiny URL doi.org/gp7x - which may be worth a try, if that one fails!).
Jon
Proboscises - recent research
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Roger Gibbons
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Re: Proboscises - recent research
Thanks Jon for posting this.
One of the many (to me, at least) puzzling aspects of butterfly behaviour is their ability to extract “salts” from seemingly dry stone. Not only does it seem impossible to extract anything from such dry surfaces, but then how does whatever has been extracted pass through the proboscis?
The more I learn about these creatures, what I still don’t understand gets greater.
Roger
One of the many (to me, at least) puzzling aspects of butterfly behaviour is their ability to extract “salts” from seemingly dry stone. Not only does it seem impossible to extract anything from such dry surfaces, but then how does whatever has been extracted pass through the proboscis?
The more I learn about these creatures, what I still don’t understand gets greater.
Roger