Jules Poirier lectures in British Columbia

[mel turner]

In article <amg39.REMOVETHIS-62773D.21591816092000 at newsstand.cit.cornell.edu>, 
amg39.REMOVETHIS at cornell.edu.invalid wrote...
>In article <8q17he$45q$1 at nnrp1.deja.com>, jarofclay at my-deja.com wrote:

[snip]

>Anything posted on icr.org automatically loses some major credibility.
>
>> 14.Describe one insect that was transitional between a non-flying
>> insect and a flying insect.
>
>A gliding insect.

Entomologists do have good ideas about the evolutionary origins of 
the Pterygota:

http://phylogeny.arizona.edu/tree/eukaryotes/animals/arthropoda/hexapoda/insecta.html
http://phylogeny.arizona.edu/tree/eukaryotes/animals/arthropoda/hexapoda/pterygota.html
http://park.org/Canada/Museum/insects/insects.html
http://park.org/Canada/Museum/insects/evolution/evolution.html

>> From what creatures did butterflies evolve?
>
>I don't know.

>From common ancestors with the rest of the Lepidoptera 

[i.e., "moths", not a monophyletic group; butterflies (Papilionoidea) 
are just one twig, the rest of the bush are all "moths"]. 

http://phylogeny.arizona.edu/tree/eukaryotes/animals/arthropoda/hexapoda/lepidoptera/lepidoptera.html
http://phylogeny.arizona.edu/tree/eukaryotes/animals/arthropoda/hexapoda/lepidoptera/neolepidoptera/neolepidoptera.html
http://phylogeny.arizona.edu/tree/eukaryotes/animals/arthropoda/hexapoda/lepidoptera/neolepidoptera/ditrysia/ditrysia.html

Earlier, the Lepidoptera shared a common ancestor with Trichoptera 
(caddisflies); together they shared earlier ones with other orders 
of "advanced" insects: 

http://phylogeny.arizona.edu/tree/eukaryotes/animals/arthropoda/hexapoda/endopterygota.html 

and so forth:

http://phylogeny.arizona.edu/tree/eukaryotes/animals/arthropoda/hexapoda/neoptera.html
http://phylogeny.arizona.edu/tree/eukaryotes/animals/arthropoda/hexapoda/pterygota.html
http://phylogeny.arizona.edu/tree/eukaryotes/animals/arthropoda/hexapoda/insecta.html
http://phylogeny.arizona.edu/tree/eukaryotes/animals/arthropoda/hexapoda/hexapoda.html
http://phylogeny.arizona.edu/tree/eukaryotes/animals/arthropoda/arthropoda.html
http://phylogeny.arizona.edu/tree/eukaryotes/animals/animals.html
http://phylogeny.arizona.edu/tree/eukaryotes/eukaryotes.html
http://phylogeny.arizona.edu/tree/life.html

cheers