Published in Malaysian Naturalist Mn 77 4 (June 2024)
Why are there so few butterfly families?
Rosli Omar
rosliomar@fastmail.fm
18 July 2024
After drawing up five checklists of butterflies, birds, mammals, odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) and snakes of Peninsular Malaysia, with scientific, English and Malay names, I noticed that butterflies have the least number of families. According to Corbet and Pendlebury, 5th edition, (2020), (C&P5), it has 1048 species in just six families. In contrast: birds (719 species, 95 families); mammals (257 species, 43 families); odonata (253 species, 17 families); and snakes (163 species, 17 families). Ratio-wise, the number of species to the number of families shows: butterflies 174, birds 8, mammals 6, odonata 15, and snakes 10. That is, butterflies have many more species divided into a very small number of families.
In biology, the term family describes a group of organisms that come from the same ancestors and share common characteristics. Dogs, wolves, and foxes, for example, are members of the same family, canidae.
The question that follows is, why are there so few butterfly families for such a large number of species? An internet search using DuckDuckGo.com, Microsoft Bing.com, and Google.com using the phrase, Why are there so few butterfly families?, did not come up with an answer. I tried Microsoft’s much-touted artificial intelligence-based Copilot, which produced the following rambling response, quoting below in full:
Sent by you:
Why are there so few butterfly families
Sent by Copilot:
Ah, the delicate dance of butterflies—their wings brushing against time itself. Let’s explore why these enchanting creatures have chosen to form only a handful of families in their evolutionary journey.
1. The Butterfly Saga: A 100-Million-Year Tale:
- Imagine a time when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, and flowers were just beginning to bloom. It was during the Cretaceous period, around 101.4 million years ago, that butterflies first took flight.
- These early butterflies were different from their nocturnal moth ancestors. They embraced the sun, flying during the day, and sought out brightly colored flowers for their sweet nectar. A love affair with blossoms began—one that continues to this day.
2. The World’s Largest Butterfly Family Tree:
- To piece together this ancient puzzle, scientists embarked on a global collaboration. They constructed the world’s largest “family tree” of butterfly species, using DNA from 2,244 species representing all butterfly families and 92% of genera.
- Imagine assembling a celestial tapestry woven from butterfly DNA sequences, geographical distributions, and larval host plants. Rare butterfly fossils served as calibration points on this evolutionary tree—11 ancient whispers preserved in stone.
3. The Origin Story: North America’s Role:
- Where did butterflies first unfurl their wings? The answer lies in Central and western North America during the mid-Cretaceous. At that time, North America was part of eastern Laurasia, bisected by an expansive seaway.
- Butterflies emerged here, their delicate forms flitting among ancient ferns and cycads. From this origin point, they embarked on a dynamic journey—a saga of rapid diversifications, improbable dispersals, and faltering advances.
4. The Butterfly Ballet: A Few Families, Many Stories:
- Why so few families? It’s a tale of adaptation and specialization:
- Rapid Diversification: Some butterfly groups radiated into diverse forms, like dancers spinning in a sunlit glade. These families—such as the Nymphalidae (brushfoots) and Pieridae (whites and yellows)—embraced various ecological niches.
- Steadfast Stayers: Others stayed put, rooted to specific habitats. Imagine a family of butterflies that clung to a single plant or ecosystem while continents shifted around them.
- Improbable Dispersals: Some groups traveled vast distances—across oceans, over mountains, and through time. Their wings carried them to new lands, where they adapted once more.
5. The Monarchs’ Tale: A Warning Signal:
- Amid this ballet, the monarch butterflies stand out. Their populations are declining due to habitat destruction, pesticides, and climate change. Both eastern and western monarchs face the same threats.
- We can help: By preserving habitats, planting milkweed (their larval host plant), and reducing pesticide use, we become part of their story—a chance to rewrite their fate.
So, my fellow time traveler, next time you see a butterfly alight on a flower, remember—it carries the echoes of 100 million years. And perhaps, in its delicate dance, lies a lesson for us all. 🌟🦋🌿
Based on this response, the artificial intelligence of Copilot, which is based on a variant of the famous ChatGPT 4, is really off the mark. First, there is no answer at all to the query. Second, the premise required to answer the query is all over the place, with some completely irrelevant, such as the Monarchs’ Tale. No doubt it’s important as a conservation issue, but not relevant at all in answering the query. I conclude that Copilot/ChatGPT has no real understanding of the issue. The fear that AI will take over our jobs is overblown on this performance.
Let me attempt an answer. Consider birds, with a relatively small number of species, 719, but divided into 95 families. These families include those that eat fish, insects, fruits, and nectar. These would require different beak formations, and bodies that are suitable for their feeding habits. Even those that eat fish have different ways of catching their prey – kingfishers, herons, eagles – which again require different beaks and body shapes. All these differences result in different bird families. The same can be said of mammals with their varied diets, and for carnivores, different ways of catching prey which again give rise to different body shapes and thus different families. Given their varied diets and ways of obtaining food, it is not surprising that bird and mammal species-to-family ratios are the lowest among the various animals.
In the case of butterflies, they only feed on nectar, fruit juices and other liquids. Thus, they only need the proboscis which does not require a varied machinery. This in turn does not give rise to many families. While there are six families in Peninsular Malaysia for 1048 species, globally, some 19,000 species are divided into just seven families (some put it as six families). The global species-to-family ratio is then 2,714.
The six families (according to C&P5) available in Peninsular Malaysia are Papilionidae (45 species), Pieridae (47), Nymphalidae (281), Riodinidae (16), Lycaenidae (402), and Hesperiidae (260).
Papilionidae. Great Mormon. Papilio memnon agenor, Ceria Sesumpah Besar. Female.
Pieridae. Red-spot Jezebel of the highlands. Delias descombesi eranthos. Kesumba Tompok-merah. Male
Nymphalidae. White (or Black-veined) Tiger. Danaus melanippus hegesippus. Rimau Putih. Male. It is of the same genus as the Monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus, of North America with its epic migration.
Riodinidae. Common Red Harlequin. Paralaxita telesia lyclene. Badut Merah.
Lycaenidae. Cornelian. Deudorix epijarbas cinnabarus. Permata
Hesperidae. Hieroglyphic Flat. Odina hieroglyphica ortina. Datar Indah.
A similar case is the odonates with 253 species divided into 17 families. It is not as extreme as the butterflies, but the same argument can be made for its relatively small number of families, i.e., their feeding habit of catching only small flying insects does not require varied mouth parts nor body structures.
Similarly for moths with 160,000 species worldwide divided into 125 families. Like butterflies, they have the same diet except for the micropteridae moths that feed on pollen, thus requiring mouth parts. Even so, this extra feeding habit does not require many more variations in their body structures, and thus their relatively small number of families. Some moths as adults do not feed at all; their sole existence is to mate and produce eggs for the next generation. This is the case of the the Atlas Moth, one of the biggest moths in the world. The ratio of species to families is 1,280.
Atlas Moth. Attacus atlas. A moth that lives a short life only to mate, not even feeding. Note the “snake heads” used to frighten potential predators.
In sum, butterflies have a small number of families for such a large number of species because their diet of fluids by a single means of the proboscis does not require varied mouth parts nor body structures and thus does not give rise to many families.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Tan beng hui and Mike HN Chong for reading through the article and providing valuable comments. Any shortcomings are my own.
Further Readings
1.My five checklists of butterflies, birds, mammals, odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) and snakes of Peninsular Malaysia, with scientific, English and Malay names have been submitted to a journal for review and publication. The checklists can be accessed here:
a. Checklist Birds: Scientific, English, Malay Names
b. Checklist Butterflies: Scientific, English, Malay Names
c. Checklist Mammals: Scientific, English, Malay Names
d. Checklist Odonata: Scientific, English, and Malay Names
e. Checklist Snakes: Scientific, English, Malay Names
2. 1,048 butterfly species in just six families for Peninsular Malaysia, and seven globally. See, Corbet, S.A. and Pendlebury, H.M. (2020), The Butterflies of the Malay Peninsula. 5th edition, edited by GM & NE van der Poorten. Malayan Nature Society: Kuala Lumpur (C&P5).
3. Globally, there are19,000 species of butterflies. https://theconversation.com/how-butterflies-conquered-the-world-a-new-family-tree-traces-their-100-million-year-journey-across-the-globe-205487
4.125 families of moths globally and six families for butterflies. Also, micropteridae moths that feed on pollen. https://theconversation.com/unveiling-the-enigmatic-world-of-moths-from-ancient-pollinators-to-whistling-wonders-209590
Rosli Omar is author of Birds of the Forest of Peninsular Malaysia: a photographic guide (SIRD, 2018), and co-author of Butterflies of Peninsular Malaysia: with a checklist of scientific, English and Malay names (Ministry of Natural Resources, Environment, and Climate Change, 2023). Although educated in electrical engineering and artificial intelligence, his passion is for nature and its conservation. He was previously a lecturer at Universiti Malaya before taking early retirement to focus on wildlife photography.