Lauren Jonik: Butterflies are such exquisite creatures. What exactly does the work of a butterfly biologist entail?

Dr. Helene Engler: The methods depend on your questions. I use a butterfly net to catch them and track them. I also catch butterflies between my two fingers at the base of their wings so I don’t hurt them. I use a permanent marker to mark their wings, but not all species are sturdy enough for this. One can study local populations in the field, or travel to exotic places like the rainforests of Central America. I studied rooftop greenhouse populations of tropical Heliconius (longwing) butterflies and Passiflora (passion vine) plants at the University of Texas in Austin. These butterflies do well in glass greenhouses under the right environmental conditions. I collected eggs in the greenhouses and reared them in containers with food plants inside a growth chamber room simulating their tropical home. I sure did clean out a lot of caterpillar poop.

LJ: You built your own lab for looking at the chemistry of butterflies and plants. What kinds of things did your research reveal? Were there many surprises?

HE: Longwings are specialized on the leaves of passion vines (passion fruit juice, anyone?). Female adults only lay eggs on them and caterpillars feed exclusively on these plants. Very few insects eat these plants and there is a good reason. Both the butterfly and plant produce different kinds of cyanide-releasing compounds, presumably as a chemical weapon. Many birds will spit out longwings due to the distastefulness of cyanide. But, no one knew much about the chemical interaction or how longwings can eat these plants. I took on the challenge. The butterfly lab was not set up to do cyanide experiments, so I started a collaboration with a plant cyanide expert in Chicago. I worked really hard getting trained in chemical ecology techniques and brought donated equipment to Texas in the back of my car. Today, I would have been pulled over by the police for what looked like a car filled with drug-making equipment.

My research was a gold-mine waiting to be uncovered. I didn’t necessarily go in looking for anything and that was the secret to my success. Naivety served me well! I discovered a special group of longwings that store cyanide poisons from their specific passion vine plants in their bodies and at super high levels. Unlike other longwings, they lost the ability to make cyanide poisons and are now locked on their food plants for getting cyanide. I see it as a type of chemical dependency. The biggest surprise finding landed me a Nature paper and a feature in the New York Science Times. I serendipitously discovered a butterfly species that prevents the release of the cyanide bomb, and possibly uses the cyanide (CN) as source of nitrogen (N). So, the butterflies can make poisonous plants less toxic and potentially more nutritious. Cassava (yucca), another cyanide plant, is a staple crop of many African cultures and it still leads to neurological conditions and even death. Learning more about it in butterflies may help this problem. To my knowledge, no one has explored it further yet.

LJ: What are some of the conditions needed to maintain a healthy butterfly population? What role do butterflies play in the ecosystem?

HE: Long term maintenance of healthy butterflies in a greenhouse or in gardens requires having the right caterpillar food plants and adult flowering plants for nectar. Butterflies are indicators of a healthy environment and healthy ecosystems. They are great pollinators and are part of life’s rich biodiversity. They are also part of the food chain for animals such as bats, birds, lizards, snakes, toads, spiders, and wasps.

LJ: What are some of the most pressing threats to butterflies? Is climate change impacting them? If so, what should be done to offer better protection to them?

HE: Butterflies are used by ecologists as models to study the impact of habitat loss and climate change. Camille Parmesan was a postdoc while I was as grad student at UT-Austin. She pioneered this field of research by studying the Edith’s checkerspot butterfly. She had the first landmark paper showing about 80 percent of her butterfly populations at the southern edge of their home range in Mexico and S. California had gone extinct from climate change. Habitats have gotten smaller or shifted north. We need to protect important butterfly habitats, but also plant their hosts in suitable climate zones to prevent further extinction. The hardest solution for scientists is to communicate with heart to the community and politicians that climate change exacerbates the risks for weather and climate disasters, like we saw in Houston. The evidence for climate change is solid. But, the facts are not enough to change people’s minds.

LJ: What determines the patterns and colors on the wings of butterflies?    

HE: Genes determine specific wings patterns. There are two ways butterflies get their color. Some butterflies, like longwings, have pigmented scales that reflect certain wavelengths of light, giving rise to the colors we see. The colored scales come off on your fingers when you touch a butterfly’s wings. The second source of color has to do with the way light reflects from structures on the butterflies’ wings. The brilliant iridescent blue Morpho butterfly of South America uses this optical effect. The reflected color depends on your angle of view.

LJ: What do butterflies use for nourishment? And, what is the typical lifespan of a butterfly?

HE: Adults drink nectar from flowers using their coiled up mouthparts called a proboscis (like a coiled up straw). Most butterflies live from two weeks to two months. Heliconius are unique in the butterfly world. They are the only known butterflies to eat pollen like a bee does, allowing them to live longer than many other butterfly (six months or longer). They get an extra source of protein to build their body tissues and extend their lifespan. In the greenhouses, we supplement the diet of butterflies with cups of yellow and orange “Tuffy” plastic scrubbing pads filled with the right sugar and amino acid concoction. They are attracted to the colors and eagerly come to drink.

LJ: What is your academic background? What inspired you to direct your attention to this particular field?

HE: I didn’t exactly grow up in a nature-loving family on Long Island (Massapequa– the town of comedians and scandals). My brother was very learning disabled and my stay-at-home mom suffered from mental illness dwelling on my brother’s condition. My dad was a rock, but he worked a lot. They were a very loving family, but not exactly “normal.” I was very shy and sheltered. But, I fell in love with science from watching the Discovery Channel. I guess you could say that science saved me because it gave me a calling and dream to chase. I went to study biology at Adelphi University in Garden City, NY. I had inspiring and great teachers like Dr. Landesberg for organic chemistry (I rocked organic chemistry!) and Dr. Churchill for botany. The life changing event was when I took a primate conservation research course in Costa Rica through The School for Field Studies. I studied habitat and food preferences of capuchin and howler monkeys in the field. One of the scientists down there was documenting “fur-washing” behavior for the first time. This is when monkeys bathed each other in citrus fruit juice as an insect repellent or to kill parasites. The monkeys were self-medicating. I could not stop thinking about finding new medicines in the rainforest by studying animals. That set my path and interest in how animals use and are influenced by chemicals in the environment, the field of chemical ecology.

LJ: There have been plentiful stories about gender discrimination in the sciences. What challenges or obstacles have you faced as a female scientist?

HE: Yeah, #metoo. I mentioned I had a collaborator outside of the university. He never crossed any physical lines, but he said inappropriate things to me that made me uncomfortable. I think he once tried to play footsie under the table, but I nipped that in the bud with various curse words. I almost left, but after thinking it through logically, I decided to stay and reap the rewards of building a lab and a career. I might have played it differently now. I look at my daughter who is ten times stronger and more confident than I was at her age. I think we are doing a better job of preparing women to value themselves and set clear boundaries of self-respect. It is a good time for woman, but there work to do on gender pay equality.

LJ: What advice would you offer to a young woman contemplating a career in academia or in the sciences?

HE: Top 4 ingredients to do science: curiosity, hard-work, tenacity, and resilience/grit. If you want to do it, just do it! You don’t have to know what you are going to study and you don’t have to be a genius. I know I am not. The process of doing an advanced degree will make you a more confident, stronger person regardless of whether you use the degree or not. Follow your gut and do what you want to do; not what you think you are supposed do. I think I might be a primatologist now if I had stuck to that advice. But, as a “blue flower” and optimist, I have no regrets. I have a good career. I am not a typical academic, but I’ll always be a scientist. So, like me, carve your own path that works for you.

LJ: Why did you become a science writer?

HE: When I had my two lovely kids Amélie and Henry, I knew my life was changed forever. I reinvented myself as a textbook science writer so I could be home to raise them. This was important to me. I didn’t want to miss a thing. I was also a single mom for five years, and that work-from-home reinvention was a life saver. My kids are older now (12 and 15), and I am finally publishing another paper combining some unfinished butterfly work with another lab’s work in Denmark. I am “morphing” again and getting interested in magazine and popular book writing. I have a burning passion to write a science-y memoir to tell my story.

LJ: What is one thing that science doesn’t yet know or can’t yet explain about butterflies?

HE: Hmm, nothing in general comes to mind. I hope it is ok to flip the question to be what you don’t want to know about my butterflies. There is some bad behavior. There is cannibalism in some species. The first egg to hatch eats nearby “sibling” eggs on the leaf. Also, in some species, male butterflies will guard the female pupa and the winner will mate her before she comes out as an adult. It is a type of forced mating, to put it nicely.

LJ: If you could fly anywhere, where would you go and why?

HE: I have two answers. There are lemurs that are specialists on cyanide-releasing bamboo in Madagascar. Madagascar is on my bucket list for research and science writing. I also want to go back to the monkeys in Costa Rica. In fact, I am taking my amazing husband Jonathan this summer for his first time. He has recently taken up photography which is ideal for this next adventure. I am finding my way back to conservation issues. It turns out that electrocution is the number #1 killer of howler monkeys in some parts of Costa Rica. There are no existing laws to insulate power lines and transformers. I am going down there to interview howler heroes that run wildlife refuges to rescue and rehabilitate injured and orphaned monkeys.

LJ: Butterflies are often depicted as powerful symbols of transformation and change– what is one thing either personally, globally or professionally that you wish could be changed? 

HE: You can believe whatever you want to believe, and this can be a good thing. But, you can’t argue about which belief is right or wrong. Science provides rational, evidence-based facts. For example, there is no such thing as believing in climate change. It is fact! Scientists need to communicate better with the public. My hope is to one day inspire the young and old to learn about science and communicate scientific facts in an effective way to help others in power make good decisions about how we treat each other, our health, our environment, and Earth.

Image of a butterfly being held between two fingers: by Helene Engler

All other photos by:  Jonathan Orenstein

Helene Engler is a scientist, university lecturer, and high school biology tutor.  She has worked for 15 years as a science writer and editor for the higher education and K-12 publishing industry. She is a published author and has recently moved into journalism to reach a broader audience about issues that are important to her. For fun, you’ll find her salsa dancing and coaching others in achieving their goals. You can follow Helene on Twitter @helene_engler and LinkedIn. Look out for her first science magazine journalism piece on monkey electrocution in Costa Rica in the very near future.