Think butterfly genomics is a simple topic? Think again, but this time think alongside Zac MacDonald and Julian Dupuis. Not only are they answering some of the most interesting contemporary conservation questions, but they’re doing so using a very curious butterfly as their model organism. “One of the difficult things with studying these kinds of butterflies….is we don't really understand fitness or adaptive value as well as we do in cougars or in foxes or in dogs or in other vertebrates that we've studied a lot more.” Julian says. “We don't really have these characteristic signals of, what does inbreeding depression look like? We just don't have that kind of information in butterflies.”

Listen in to learn about cutting edge genomics from certified self-described “crazy butterfly people” and expand your idea of what is possible in conservation.

Zac and Julian’s paper “Genomic and ecological divergence support recognition of a new species of endangered Satyrium butterfly (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae)” is in volume 1234 of Zookeys. 

It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1234.143893

A transcript of this episode can be found here: Zac Macdonald and Julian Dupuis - Transcript

New Species: Satyrium curiosolus

Episode image credit: MacDonald et. al (2025)

Follow Zac on instagram: @wild_about_the_wild_things

Another paper by Zac and Julian on the future of butterfly conservation: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mec.17657

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Music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom)

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