Researchers led by the University of Colorado Boulder used powerful DNA sequencing methods to characterise bacterial communities inhabiting caterpillars, pupae and adults of Heliconius erato, commonly known as the red postman butterfly.
The red postman is an abundant tropical butterfly found in Central and South America.
The results showed the internal bacterial diversity of the red postman was halved when it morphed from the caterpillar to the chrysalis, or pupal stage, then doubled after the pupae turned into active adult butterflies.
"What we saw was that the microbial community simplified and reorganised itself during the transition from caterpillar to pupa," he said.
"Then we saw the diversity double after the adult butterflies had emerged and began going about their business of feeding. That was a little surprising to us," he said.
The butterflies were collected at a field site in Gamboa, Panama, and data analysis was done at CU-Boulder.
"But almost nothing had previously been known about what kind of internal microbes they have and how they change over the butterfly life cycle," he said.
One reason to study the microbial makeup of caterpillars has to do with the potential damage caterpillars can do to crops, said Hammer.
"People are starting to think about the microbiome of insects as targets for pest control, including insecticides, so we need to know what specific bacteria they contain and how they work," Hammer said.
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