Aberration

Trev Sawyer · Post by **Trev Sawyer** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 3:47 pm

Just a thought...
There seems to be a lot of abberant butterflies this year (see the frits on sites page, together with the blues, the comma etc in recent posts). I believe someone (Pete?) told me that some abberations are caused by unusual temperatures during the late pupal stages. Is this odd summer responsible for an increase in numbers of abberant species, or are we on this site just getting better at spotting them? What other factors affect whether a butterfly appears 'normal' or 'unusual' I wonder... Over to the experts.

Trev

Post by **Pete Eeles** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 4:19 pm

The 2 main categories are:

1. Genetics

2. Environment

Quite elegantly explained (at length) in E.B.Ford's classic work "Butterflies".

The (apparent) increase is probably due to 1 of 2 things - the weird weather, and smaller populations (resulting in more in-breeding and therefore genetic "deformaties").

Cheers,

- Pete

Dave McCormick · Post by **Dave McCormick** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 4:27 pm

Well, suppose yor right. I noticed a few common blue abs when I was out. One male and possible two femles. Ones that don't seem to have abs as much are possible vanessid butterflies such as Tortoiseshells, Peacocks, Red Admirals etc...

Small coppers are prone and the ones with blue spots on hindwing are easily encountered. Which species are more prone than others?