Key points of CUBE Chatshaala discussion: 12th April 2023

Home Lab Study By Sara on Common mormon Butterfly

What is special about Sara’s work !!!

Sara collected 10 number of Caterpillars from Curry leaf plant.

She observed 3 different forms Common mormon :thinking:
We familiar with Male & female butterflies but how a butterfly is having 3 different forms !!!

Thanks to Sara for her enthusiasm & curiousity driven observations from CUBE home lab Varakala

BUTTERFLY National meet.mp4 - Google Drive

@Aiswary from CUBE Kollenchery ,@Nandini from CUBE Nallore @Hitesh @Shalinwere partipated in today’s Chatshala and discussion was about the Mimicry in common butterfly and it’s Host plants .

We compared the data of Sara’s work with the Butterfly man "Krishna megh kunte ": Reasercher in NCBS,Tifr Bangalore .

here is a project on the Common Mormon butterfly “Molecular genetics and evolution of mimicry in the Papilio polytes butterfly”. This butterfly is found across India, Indo-China and southeast Asia and is eaten by predators such as birds. Some female Common Mormons look similar to the male, but others mimic the color patterns of two unrelated species found in these areas: the Common Rose (Pachliopta aristolochiae) and the Crimson Rose (Pachliopta hector). The Roses are unpalatable and therefore not usually eaten by predators.

The Butterfly Man | NCBS news

Why common mormon female butterfly mimics crimson rose butterfly?. Why does Common mormon female butterfly gets the red colour in the wing which is similar to what crimson rose has got?.

How red colour in the common mormon female butterfly selected ?.

References shared during CUBE Chatshaala discussion
If you line up males and females of the Common Mormon butterfly, you would think they are from different species. The females are confusing — some resemble males and some mimic poisonous butterflies to fool predators. New research has found that a single gene codes for all of this wondrous complexity1. One gene for many butterfly disguises.

The same genetic code can result in different mRNAs, which are molecular messengers that take instructions from the genome to different parts of the cell. P. polytes females can make three distinct mRNAs from doublesex . Two of these forms are found in higher amounts in mimetic females. One gene for many butterfly disguises.

Group photograph of (12/04/23) CUBE Chatshaala participants

Thanks to all participants of CUBE Chatshhala for joining and sharing valuable knowledge with all others. speacial thanks to @Theertha for writing key points during CUBE Chatshaala.