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07.02.2018 14:37, Penzyak

Scientists found the butterflies discovered by Nabokov

In the 1940s, ten years before the author of “Lolita” became world famous, Vladimir Nabokov secured a solid reputation for himself by proposing a new classification of butterflies of the genus Lycaeides-pigeons.

Nabokov divided pigeons into two main subspecies – Lycaeides Melissa and Lycaeides idas. He also hypothesized that the pigeons he found in the Teton Mountains and Colorado Mountains were a hybrid of these two subspecies, but he did not have sufficient tools to prove this.

Now, a team of scientists from Texas State University, the University of California at Davis, the University of Nevada at Reno, and the University of Tennessee has suggested that the” unnamed " population of mountain pigeons in the Sierra Nevada Mountains is a hybrid formed as a result of an ancient merger of the species Lycaeides melissa and Lycaeides idas.

These pigeons inhabited a treeless mountain area at a higher altitude than that at which their ancestral habitat was located, says Zachariah Gompert, a graduate student in biology at Texas State University and the main author of the work published in the online version of the journal Science. Lycaeides melissa inhabit the Great Basin area on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, while Lycaeides idas are found in moist grasslands extending to the mid-western slope.

Combined with other behavioral and physical changes, the shift in habitat has isolated mountain pigeons from their progenitors in a reproductive sense, which is a prerequisite for granting them separate species status, Gompert says.

Mountain pigeons prefer to choose partners with the same pattern on their wings, says Gompert.

The genome of mountain pigeons is a mosaic mixture of the genomes of their progenitors, he adds, and also contains information in the chromosomes indicating that the age of mountain pigeons as a species – 440 thousand years-is significantly less than that of Lycaeides melissa or Lycaeides idas, which appeared 1.9 million and 1.26 million years ago, respectively.

During the onset of the glacier, the scientist argues, small groups in which two species of the progenitors of these butterflies were represented were isolated in a kind of pocket, crossing took place, and their hybrid offspring survived.

The research team plans to search for hybrid pigeon populations in other mountainous areas, says Dr. Chris Nice, a professor of biology at Texas State University and the project's scientific supervisor.

The standard view of biologists has always been that a new species splits off from the existing parent species. This is considered to be the case if the individual is isolated reproductively due to geographical, genetic, or behavioral changes.

Mating between different species, presumably, leads to the appearance of individuals that are not capable of reproduction (mules) or require continuous backcrossing with individuals of the parent species.

However, with the development of the molecular biology toolkit, scientists have been able to demonstrate that genetic drift between species, subspecies, and populations is much more common than previously thought. Scientists are identifying more and more hybrid plant and animal species.

” There aren't many pure species, " says Dr. Lauren Riesberg, a plant crossing expert at the University of British Columbia.

The most widely discussed hybrid species is the red wolf, which, according to genetic data, is the result of a cross between an ordinary wolf and a coyote. However, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as well as some scientists, insist that this wolf is native to the southeastern United States, which, when the population began to decline, began to mate with coyotes, which were in abundance. To prevent the red wolf from being “swallowed up” by coyotes, this service in 1980 began a program to breed and preserve the “pure " red wolf.

Dr. John Melnick, director of the Center for Environmental Studies at Columbia University, says “ " We are really learning that evolution is a more complex and dynamic process than many of us previously thought.”

[[a href=http://www.inopressa.ru/ target=_blank]]InoPressa[[/a]]

http://orloffmagazine.com/news/izdany-neiz...bochek-nabokova

Fine Lines
Vladimir Nabokov’s Scientific Art

Edited by Stephen H. Blackwell and Kurt Johnson
View Inside
Price: $50.00

March 22, 2016
336 pages, 8 x 10
75 color + 94 b/w illus.
ISBN: 9780300194555
Cloth
Description
Reviews

The first comprehensive, interdisciplinary accounting of Nabokov’s scientific work, its significance in his artistry, and his contribution to evolutionary theory

This landmark book is the first full appraisal of Vladimir Nabokov’s long-neglected contributions as a scientist. Although his literary achievements are renowned, until recently his scientific discoveries were ignored or dismissed by many. Nabokov created well over 1,000 technical illustrations of the anatomical structures of butterflies, seeking to understand the evolutionary diversity of small butterflies called Blues. But only lately have scientists confirmed his meticulous research and vindicated his surprising hypotheses.

This volume reproduces 154 of Nabokov’s drawings, few of which have ever been seen in public, and presents essays by ten leading scientists and Nabokov specialists. The contributors underscore the significance of Nabokov’s drawings as scientific documents, evaluate his visionary contributions to evolutionary biology and systematics, and offer insights into his unique artistic perception and creativity.

Stephen H. Blackwell is professor of Russian, University of Tennessee. He is the author of The Quill and the Scalpel: Nabokov’s Art and the Worlds of Science. He lives in Knoxville, TN. Kurt Johnson is author or coauthor of more than 200 journal articles on Lepidoptera and coauthor of Nabokov’s Blues: The Scientific Odyssey of a Literary Genius. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.

https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300194555/fine-lines

This post was edited by Penzyak - 07.02.2018 14: 57

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