Reno Reporter

Outdoor lovers had the foresight to gather and conserve natural specimens from the Great Basin a century ago.

The Museum of Natural History at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) houses these collections, according to a news release from the school. Specimens include birds, mammals, insects, fish, and more. Postdoctoral scholar Behnaz "Nazy" Balmaki is currently sifting through the collections at the museum.

"Examining network changes over long periods of time provides the best methods to inform how plant-insect interaction webs may have changed with global climate change and to identify groups of butterflies and interactions that are most susceptible to disturbances," she said.

Habitat destruction and warmer temperatures create those disturbances, the news release noted. Balmaki was able to identify how butterflies came in contact with various plants. She collected pollen from the plants the museum keeps using artificial intelligence technology. She then compared that to pollen grains from butterflies.

Since many of the butterflies possess thousands of pollen particles, the process can be laborious, according to the news release. A butterfly is first rinsed in ethyl alcohol to remove the majority of the pollen. Balmaki next picks up any residual grains from the butterfly's body using an entomological pin, which resembles a tiny, thin nail and is covered with silicone oil.

Balmaki compared samples gathered between 1910 and 2020, the news release noted. She is currently studying how climate change and ongoing drought conditions in the Great Basin and Sierra Nevada have affected the relationship between plants and butterflies.