Lightness of Being: the Lepidoptera ProjectThe nature of life is ephemeral, our short seasons on Earth just a blip in time. All of us Earth Creatures are here but for a moment but the variety and complexity of life we are surrounded by is astounding. We are so lucky to be here in this moment. The short summer seasons in the Arctic highlight the intensity of life, as the season is short but productive. It is a time when the natural world explodes with color and activity and it is also an area where the climate is changing fastest.
As average temperatures rise across the Arctic and flowering plant species move northward, researchers also see a northward shift in some butterfly species across the world and in the Arctic. Individual species of butterfly rely heavily on specific flowers to be present for obtaining nectar from. So their populations must follow the flowers and trees they rely on. If climate change or development affects butterfly habitat extensively researchers see a drastic decrease in population. We are seeing this decline dramatically with the Western Monarch that has decreased from 1.2 million in 1997 to just 30,000 today. There are at least 43 families of the order of Lepidoptera that occur here in the Far North. A scanning electron microscope was used to image some of these butterflies and moths from the online Ken Philip Lepidoptera Collection, the largest private Beringian butterfly collection in the world, now at the Smithsonian Institute of Natural History. This investigation was the inspiration for a series of paintings shown here were exhibited at the University of Alaska Museum of the North from April-July, 2019. |
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