Art Shapiro's Butterfly Site

Plucked from treeless slopes above Lake Tahoe, stored in UC Davis freezers and Fed-Exed to Texas, a batch of blue and black butterflies could help shed light on how new species are formed.

Genetic analysis shows that the still-unnamed alpine butterfly sprang from the crossing of two other species, according to an article published online Thursday by the journal Science.

That's a well-known way for new species of plants to emerge, but it's less well understood and less common in animals.
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Read the entire Sacramento Bee article, by Carrie Peyton Dahlberg, at the link below:

Link: http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/85727.html