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A landmark effort to sequence the genome of a South American butterfly has revealed the key behind its ability to mimic other butterflies. A first for science, the genome sequencing work is the product of an international group of researchers, dubbed the Heliconius Genome Consortium, who examined the genome of the Postman butterfly (Heliconius melpomene), a well-known species that lives in the Peruvian Amazon. Using that data as a guide, they then examined the genetic makeup of two other closely related butterfly species – Heliconius timareta and Heliconius elevatus. The three species were selected for the study because they share similar color patterns on their wings as a way to ward off predators. The consortium’s surprising finding, as described in a paper published May 16 in Nature, is that the species look similar because they share the parts of their DNA that deal with color patterns. “Heliconius butterflies exhibit an extraordinary amount of color-pattern...