Name: How Did This Butterfly Get So Old?
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While most butterflies feed on nectar only, this genus of butterfly also feeds on pollen.

A special diet could be the secret to its exceptional longevity.

How Did This Butterfly Get So Old?

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While most butterflies feed on nectar only, this genus of butterfly also feeds on pollen.

A special diet could be the secret to its exceptional longevity.

Nature

How Did This Butterfly Get So Old?Published: February 3, 2022Narrator: Many butterflies live only for a few weeks, but one called Heliconius stands out with a lifespan closer to six months.Adriana Briscoe: One of the ways we think they can live so long is because they have changed their diet.Lawrence Gilbert: They live a long time because they have developed this ability to harvest pollen.Narrator: While most butterflies feed mainly on nectar, Heliconius adds pollen to its diet. The pollen sticks to the entire length of its proboscis. The pollen might keep the butterfly healthy, but Adriana has found a possible medical application derive from the way Heliconius digest the nutrient. She's collaborating with chemist Rachel Martin.Briscoe: This is the part of the proboscis where fluids can go in and they can also go out.Rachel Martin: I was really fascinated to find out that it acts like a sponge. I was kind of always picturing this being like a giant drinking straw.Briscoe: Oh yeah, no. You can see that there are these ridges shown in green and those are perfect grooves for pollen to get stuck in, when the butterflies probe the flower and the pollen grains start to get stuck in those grooves. The butterflies then release saliva from the tip of their proboscis and that starts to glue things together.Martin: It makes sense that the butterfly would have enzymes that are really optimized for getting into those little nooks and crannies and digesting the protein because pollen is about 20% protein. So it is a lot.Narrator: The Heliconius' long life might be explained in part by this intake of high protein pollen, which it actually digests on the outside of its proboscis. Thanks to a very particular type of enzyme.Briscoe: That enzyme is known as cocoonase because it was originally discovered in silk moths. Silk moths have one version of this enzyme, which they use to digest their silk cocoons so they can escape. If that enzyme is not functioning, they die in their cocoons.Narrator: By extracting this cocoonase enzyme to reproduce its dissolving properties on a large scale, Adriana hopes to alleviate potentially serious medical conditions like blood clots.Briscoe: Blood clots are very common in the United States. It turns out you can take cocoonase and in a test tube, you can mix it up with a blood clot and it'll break it down into its component parts.

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How Did This Butterfly Get So Old?

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