Explanipedia

Using citizen science data to estimate trait and climate drivers of daily activity patterns in temperate butterflies Open

Michael W. Belitz, V.A. Akshay · 2025

Characterizing temporal niche is integral to understanding eco-evolutionary interactions of species, but research into the timing of species’ daily activity patterns (diel activity) has remained challenging due to data limitations. In timi…

Long-term population dynamics of an endangered butterfly are influenced by hurricane-mediated disturbance Open

Sarah R. Steele Cabrera, Michael W. Belitz, Thomas C. Emmel, Emily S. Khazan, Matthew J. Standridge , et al. · 2025

Interactions between sexual signaling and wing size drive ecology and evolution of wing colors in Odonata Open

Jacob Idec, Seth Bybee, Jessica L. Ware, John C. Abbott, Rhainer Guillermo Nascimento Ferreira , et al. · 2024

Interactions between sexual signaling and body size drive ecology and evolution of wing colors in Odonata Open

Jacob Idec, Seth Bybee, Jessica L. Ware, John C. Abbott, Rhainer Guillermo Nascimento Ferreira , et al. · 2024

Insect coloration has evolved in response to multiple pressures, and in Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) a body of work supports a role of wing color in a variety of visual signals and potentially in thermoregulation. Previous efforts…

Long-term population dynamics of an endangered butterfly are influenced by hurricane-mediated disturbance Open

Sarah R. Steele Cabrera, Michael W. Belitz, Thomas C. Emmel, Emily S. Khazan, Matthew J. Standridge , et al. · 2024

Effective species conservation requires understanding an organism’s population dynamics and natural history, but long-term data are challenging to collect and maintain. As a result, conservation management decisions are frequently made usi…

Substantial urbanization‐driven declines of larval and adult moths in a subtropical environment Open

Michael W. Belitz, Asia Sawyer, Lillian K. Hendrick, Akito Y. Kawahara, Robert Guralnick · 2024

Recent work has shown the decline of insect abundance, diversity and biomass, with potential implications for ecosystem services. These declines are especially pronounced in regions with high human activity, and urbanization is emerging as…

Anatomy of a mega‐radiation: Biogeography and niche evolution in Astragalus Open

Ryan A. Folk, Joseph L. M. Charboneau, Michael W. Belitz, Tajinder Singh, Heather R. Kates , et al. · 2024

Premise Astragalus (Fabaceae), with more than 3000 species, represents a globally successful radiation of morphologically highly similar species predominant across the northern hemisphere. It has attracted attention from systematists and b…

Phylogenetic diversity and regionalization in the temperate arid zone Open

Ryan A. Folk, Ali-Asghar Maassoumi, Carolina M. Siniscalchi, Heather R. Kates, Douglas E. Soltis , et al. · 2023

Astragalus (Fabaceae) is astoundingly diverse in temperate, cold arid regions of Earth, positioning this group as a model clade for investigating the distribution of plant diversity in the face of climatic challenge. Here we identify the s…

Substantial urbanization-driven declines of larval and adult moths in a subtropical environment Open

Michael W. Belitz, Asia Sawyer, Lillian K. Hendrick, Akito Y. Kawahara, Robert Guralnick · 2023

Recent work has shown the decline of insect abundance, diversity, and biomass, with potential implications for ecosystem services. These declines are especially pronounced in regions with high human activity, and urbanization is emerging a…

Phylogenetic diversity and regionalization of root nodule symbiosis Open

Ryan A. Folk, Michael W. Belitz, Carolina M. Siniscalchi, Heather R. Kates, Pamela S. Soltis , et al. · 2023

Aim Here we determine centers of species richness (SR), relative phylogenetic diversity (RPD) and centers of paleo- and neo-endemism, and regionalizations of phylogenetic diversity in the mimosoid clade of the legumes to understand the dis…

Anatomy of a mega-radiation: Biogeography and niche evolution inAstragalus Open

Ryan A. Folk, Joseph L. M. Charboneau, Michael W. Belitz, Tanya Singh, Heather R. Kates , et al. · 2023

Astragalus (Fabaceae), with more than 3,000 species, represents a successful radiation of morphologically highly similar species found across the Northern Hemisphere. It has attracted attention from systematists and biogeographers, who hav…

Weather anomalies more important than climate means in driving insect phenology Open

Robert Guralnick, Lindsay P. Campbell, Michael W. Belitz · 2023

Spatial phylogenetics of Fagales: Investigating the history of temperate forests Open

Ryan A. Folk, Carolina M. Siniscalchi, Joshua R. Doby, Heather R. Kates, Steven R. Manchester , et al. · 2023

Aim Quantifying the phylogenetic diversity of temperate trees is essential for understanding what processes are implicated in shaping the modern distribution of temperate broadleaf forest and other major forest biomes. Here we focus on Fag…

Diversity of Palaearctic Dragonflies and Damselflies (Odonata) Open

Vincent J. Kalkman, Jean‐Pierre Boudot, Ryo Futahashi, John C. Abbott, Cornelio A. Bota‐Sierra , et al. · 2022

More than 1.2 million distribution records were used to create species distribution models for 402 Palaearctic species of dragonflies and damselflies. On the basis of these diversity maps of total, lentic and lotic diversity for the whole …

Weather anomalies more important than climate means in driving insect phenology Open

Robert Guralnick, Lindsay P. Campbell, Michael W. Belitz · 2022

Studies of long-term trends in phenology often rely on climatic averages, overlooking climate variability. Here we test the hypothesis that unusual weather conditions are particularly critical in driving adult insect phenology. First, we g…

Phenology in adult and larval Lepidoptera from structured and unstructured surveys across eastern North America Open

Grace J. Di Cecco, Michael W. Belitz, Robert J. Cooper, Elise A. Larsen, William Lewis , et al. · 2022

Caterpillars (larval Lepidoptera) are an essential link in trophic networks of forest ecosystems, as they serve as herbivores of vegetation and a food source for many organisms. Phenological mismatches between caterpillars, host plants, or…

LepTraits Version 1.0 Open

Vaughn Shirey, Elise A. Larsen, Andra Doherty, Clifford A. Kim, Faisal T. Al-Sulaiman , et al. · 2022

Here, we present the largest, global dataset of Lepidopteran traits, focusing initially on butterflies (ca. 12,500 species records). These traits are derived from field guides, taxonomic treatments, and other literature resources. We prese…

Exploring discrepancies between in situ phenology and remotely derived phenometrics at NEON sites Open

Alison Donnelly, Rong Yu, Katherine D. Jones, Michael W. Belitz, Bonan Li , et al. · 2022

In recent decades, the use of satellite sensors, near‐surface cameras, and other remote methods for monitoring vegetation phenology at landscape and higher scales has become increasingly common. These technologies provide a means to determ…

Consistent Trait-Temperature Interactions Drive Butterfly Phenology in Both Incidental and Survey Data Open

Elise A. Larsen, Michael W. Belitz, Robert Guralnick, Leslie Ries · 2021

Data availability limits phenological research at broad temporal and spatial extents. Butterflies are among the few taxa with broad-scale occurrence data, from both incidental reports and formal surveys. Incidental reports have observation…

Spatial phylogenetics of butterflies in relation to environmental drivers and angiosperm diversity across North America Open

Chandra Earl, Michael W. Belitz, Shawn W. Laffan, Vijay Barve, Narayani Barve , et al. · 2021

Climate drivers of adult insect activity are conditioned by life history traits Open

Michael W. Belitz, Vijay Barve, Joshua R. Doby, Maggie M. Hantak, Elise A. Larsen , et al. · 2021

Insect phenological lability is key for determining which species will adapt under environmental change. However, little is known about when adult insect activity terminates, and overall activity duration. We used community-science and mus…

Comparing in situ phenology and remotely derived phenometrics across ecosystems Open

Alison Donnelly, Rong Yu, Katherine D. Jones, Michael W. Belitz, Bonan Li , et al. · 2021

The use of satellite sensors, near-surface cameras and other remote methods of monitoring vegetation phenology at landscape and higher scales has become increasingly common. These technologies provide a means to determine the timi…

A complete inventory of North American butterfly occurrence data: narrowing data gaps, but increasing bias Open

Vaughn Shirey, Michael W. Belitz, Vijay Barve, Robert Guralnick · 2021

Aggregate biodiversity data from museum specimens and community observations have promise for macroscale ecological analyses. Despite this, many groups are under‐sampled, and sampling is not homogeneous across space. Here we used butterfli…

Spatial phylogenetics of butterflies in relation to environmental drivers and angiosperm diversity across North America Open

Chandra Earl, Michael W. Belitz, Shawn W. Laffan, Vijay Barve, Narayani Barve , et al. · 2020

Broad-scale quantitative assessments of biodiversity and the factors shaping it remain particularly poorly explored in insects. Here, we undertook a spatial phylogenetic analysis of North American butterflies via assembly of a time-calibra…

Closing Gaps But Increasing Bias In North American Butterfly Inventory Completeness Open

Vaughn Shirey, Michael W. Belitz, Vijay Barve, Robert Guralnick · 2020

Aggregate biodiversity data from museum specimens and community observations have promise for macroscale ecological analyses. Despite this, many groups are under-sampled, and sampling is not homogeneous across space. Here we used butterfli…

Methods for broad‐scale plant phenology assessments using citizen scientists’ photographs Open

Vijay Barve, Laura Brenskelle, Daijiang Li, Brian J. Stucky, Narayani Barve , et al. · 2020

Premise Citizen science platforms for sharing photographed digital vouchers, such as iN aturalist, are a promising source of phenology data, but methods and best practices for use have not been developed. Here we introduce methods using Yu…

A data management workflow of biodiversity data from the field to data users Open

Rachel Hackett, Michael W. Belitz, Edward Gilbert, Anna Monfils · 2019

Premise Heterogeneity of biodiversity data from the collections, research, and management communities presents challenges for data findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability. Workflows designed with data collection, stan…

Methods for broad-scale plant phenology assessments using citizen scientists’ photographs Open

Vijay Barve, Laura Brenskelle, Daijiang Li, Brian J. Stucky, Narayani Barve , et al. · 2019

Broad-scale plant flowering phenology data has predominantly come from geographically and taxonomically restricted monitoring networks. However, platforms such as iNaturalist, where citizen scientists upload photographs and curate identifi…

Aggregated occurrence records of the federally endangered Poweshiek skipperling (Oarisma poweshiek) Open

Michael W. Belitz, Lillian K. Hendrick, Michael J. Monfils, David L. Cuthrell, Christopher J. Marshall , et al. · 2018

Primary biodiversity data records that are open access and available in a standardised format are essential for conservation planning and research on policy-relevant time-scales. We created a dataset to document all known occurrence data f…

Milde-Biese-Aland Open

Michael W. Belitz · 2015

This article deals with problems related to the tradition of name evidences in written documents. Those written sources functioning as mediating medium for the variant types of the names, have a specific context of origin and tradition, wh…

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