Throughout evolutionary history, countless species have adopted multiple physiological and behavioral characteristics to increase their survival and reproduction rates. It is hypothesized that insects, for example, develop flying appendages such as wings to allow them to compete with other animals in the surrounding environment for potential mates or to protect themselves from dangerous predators. According to past fossil records, the ancestors of modern living creatures called silverfish populated planet Earth about 400 million years ago. A sixty-five million year gap in the fossil record provides biologists only fossils of insects with or without wings dating back about 325 million years. Due to the lack of evidence demonstrating the intermediate stage of insect wing development, the main question of how exactly insects managed to adopt these anatomical structures is still a debated topic in the scientific community today (Grom, 2009). a specific group of insects of the order Lepidoptera did not appear on the ecological scene until recently; with its first fossil dating back approximately 60 million years ago during the Tertiary Period. Being members of the Kingdom Animalia, Phylum Arthropoda, Class Insecta and Order Lepidoptera, butterflies are generally divided into two suborders called Hterocera and Rhopalocera. Despite having differently shaped wings and antennae, butterflies of these suborders are both known for displaying their beautiful wings with multidimensional colors and patterns. Although humans usually appreciate butterfly wings for their beauty alone, scientists who study the coloration patterns of these insects are less concerned with their aesthetics and more interested in the center of the paper......lies, Kyoto University, http://web.ebscohost.com.libproxy.sbcc.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=757b52b9-976d-41c2-aa81-38878180ff43%40sessionmgr112&vid=2&hid=114 (November 23, 2013)Kelly, J . , 2013, Butterfly Wings Hold Clues to Evolutionary Adaptation, University of Chicago Magazine, http://www.uchicago.edu/features/butterfly_wings_hold_clues_to_evolutionary_adaptation/ (22 November 2013) Kingsolver, J. & Wiernasz, D., C., 1991, Seasonal Polyphenism in wing-melanin model and thermoregulation Adaptation in Pieris Butterflies, University of Washington, v. 137, p.. 836-878Morehouse, N.I., Mandon, N., Christides, J.P., Body, M., Bimbard, G., & Casas, J., 2012, Seasonal selection and resource dynamics in a seasonal polyphenic butterfly, evolutionary biology, http://casas-lab.irbi.univ-tours.fr/Morehouse%20et%20al.,%202013.pdf (November 23, 2013)