The genes that make a fruit fly's eyes red also produce red wing patterns in the Heliconius butterfly found in South and Central America, finds entomologists. The genes that make a fruit fly’s eyes ...

Red may mean STOP or I LOVE YOU! A red splash on a toxic butterfly's wing screams DON'T EAT ME! In nature, one toxic butterfly species may mimic the wing pattern of another toxic species in the area.

New research on butterfly genomes has revealed that the genetic components that produce different splotches of colour on wings can be mixed up between species by interbreeding to create new patterns, ...

Native to the Philippines, the Scarlet Mormon is known for its rich red patches that stand out sharply against its black wings. Males show brighter colours, while females mimic toxic species to avoid ...

Amazonian Heliconius butterflies have a distinctive coloring, known as the “dennis red patch” and the “ray red streaks” on each side of the wing. These colors come from different genes that derived ...

Butterfly wing patterns have a basic plan to them, which is manipulated by non-coding regulatory DNA to create the diversity of wings seen in different species, according to new research. The study, ...

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Engineered mutant butterflies give a glimpse deep into the genetic roots of wing patterns, an international team reported Monday in the Proceedings of the ...

Researchers identified genomic elements that regulate the expression of optix, a gene that controls the red mimicry-related color patterns in Heliconius butterflies, and that appear to have evolved in ...