Home » Intelligent Design, News, speciation » New butterfly species – that look just like other species – identified by DNA

New butterfly species – that look just like other species – identified by DNA

November 25, 2011 Posted by News under Intelligent Design, News, speciation
2 Comments
File:Viceroy Butterfly.jpg

No, this is NOT a Monarch, it's a look-alike Viceroy/PiccoloNamek

From “New butterfly species are identified through DNA: Previously lumped in with known varieties, genes prove otherwise in the Yucatan” (MSNBC, November 23, 2011), we learn,

New research into the particulars of butterfly DNA has unmasked as many as nine new butterfly species previously lumped together with known butterfly species.

The interloping butterflies, all found in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, have long remained incognito in the collection of El Colegio de la Frontera Sur-Chetumal (ECOSUR), a research center in Mexico. They are known as “cryptic species,” because, although their markings and body types are nearly identical to previously identified butterfly species, their genes tell a different story.

Here’s another task anda half they tackled:

In addition to identifying nine butterfly species that are likely new to science, the genetic study allowed scientists to sort 71 caterpillar specimens into 16 different species and match them with their adult counterparts — a difficult task when relying on appearance alone, since there’s notoriously little resemblance between a caterpillar and its more elegant, fully grown form.

The article does not address an obvious question: How butterflies with different enough DNA to be different species manage to look pretty much the same (“cryptic species”). Or how caterpillars look so different from adults.

A Darwinian interpretation explains that natural selection “selects” for such similarities and differences, but that doesn’t answer the critical, science question: How, exactly, are the differences produced?

Incidentally, some butterfly caterpillars can look completely different during different instars (moltings of skin, revealing the “new look” underneath). Check out the Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillar here. You must scroll down.

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2 Responses to New butterfly species – that look just like other species – identified by DNA

  1. 1
    bornagain77November 25, 2011 at 6:12 am

    This reminds me of this:

    Bernard d’Abrera on Butterfly Mimicry and the Faith of the Evolutionist – October 5, 2011
    Excerpt: For it to happen in a single species once through chance, is mathematically highly improbable. But when it occurs so often, in so many species, and we are expected to apply mathematical probability yet again, then either mathematics is a useless tool, or we are being criminally blind.,,, Evolutionism (with its two eldest daughters, phylogenetics and cladistics) is the only systematic synthesis in the history of the universe that proposes an Effect without a Final Cause. It is a great fraud, and cannot be taken seriously because it outrageously attempts to defend the philosophically indefensible.
    http://www.evolutionnews.org/2.....51571.html

    Further notes:

    The Enigma of Metamorphosis Is Hardly Limited to Butterflies – October 2011
    Excerpt: Even more mysteriously, it appears that the most ancient phyla were metamorphic from the beginning, based on the few larval forms that have been preserved. This suggests that these Cambrian animals had not one but two or more developmental stages at the outset,,,,
    http://www.evolutionnews.org/2.....51541.html

    Metamorphosis Is Widespread – Ann Gauger – video
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkD-jd1imaI

    A Mathematician Explains the Irreducible Complexity of Metamorphosis – November 2011
    Excerpt: Now we are not talking about climbing Mount Improbable, we are talking about building a bridge across an enormous chasm, between caterpillar and butterfly. ,, Until construction of this extremely long and complicated bridge is almost complete, it is a bridge to nowhere. Unless a butterfly (or another organism capable of reproduction) comes out at the end, the chrysalis only serves as a casket for the caterpillar, which cannot reproduce. Now we do not have to simply imagine uses for not-quite-watertight vacuum chamber traps, we have to imagine a selective advantage for committing suicide before you are able to reproduce, and that is a more difficult challenge!
    http://www.evolutionnews.org/2.....52461.html

    Metamorphosis Trailer – Illustra Media
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiRFftkTtSA

    Verse and Music:

    “There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again” (John 3:1-7).

    Newsboys – Born Again -
    http://vimeo.com/8891858

  2. 2
    JoeNovember 25, 2011 at 11:49 am

    How butterflies with different enough DNA to be different species manage to look pretty much the same (“cryptic species”).

    Dr Denton tells us that although genes may influence every aspect of development they do not determine it.

    Dr Sermonti tells us that we do not know what makes a cat a cat other than the successful mating of a tom with a she cat.

    Rodent’s bizarre traits deepen mystery of genetics, evolution:

    The study focuses on 60 species within the vole genus Microtus, which has evolved in the last 500,000 to 2 million years. This means voles are evolving 60-100 times faster than the average vertebrate in terms of creating different species. Within the genus (the level of taxonomic classification above species), the number of chromosomes in voles ranges from 17-64. DeWoody said that this is an unusual finding, since species within a single genus often have the same chromosome number.

    Among the vole’s other bizarre genetic traits:

    •In one species, the X chromosome, one of the two sex-determining chromosomes (the other being the Y), contains about 20 percent of the entire genome. Sex chromosomes normally contain much less genetic information.

    •In another species, females possess large portions of the Y (male) chromosome.

    •In yet another species, males and females have different chromosome numbers, which is uncommon in animals.

    A final “counterintuitive oddity” is that despite genetic variation, all voles look alike, said DeWoody’s former graduate student and study co-author Deb Triant.

    “All voles look very similar, and many species are completely indistinguishable,” DeWoody said.

    In one particular instance, DeWoody was unable to differentiate between two species even after close examination and analysis of their cranial structure; only genetic tests could reveal the difference.

    Nevertheless, voles are perfectly adept at recognizing those of their own species.

    Yup after all this “evolution” a vole is still a vole and a butterfly is still a butterfly.

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