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FAMED as the author of , Vladimir Nabokov was also a dedicated researcher. In 1945, while working at what is now the , Nabokov proposed a radical overhaul of the taxonomy of a butterfly family which includes species known commonly as the 鈥渂lues鈥�. Now the first DNA analysis of the Lycaenidae is in, and the result is clear: Nabokov was right.
Taxonomists have never been able to agree on how these insects are related to each other. In the 1940s they had to rely on anatomy to distinguish species; for butterflies this mainly meant the male genitalia. Nabokov stared at these under a microscope 鈥渟ix hours a day, seven days a week, until his eyesight was permanently impaired鈥�, .
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He that the butterflies fell into five groups, which successively entered the Americas from Asia via what is now the Bering Strait; the southernmost species arriving first. This required a 鈥渞ather drastic rearrangement of the species鈥�, he wrote.
A team from Nabokov鈥檚 former stamping ground has now analysed the butterflies鈥� DNA. Both DNA and the species鈥� temperature preferences confirm that Nabokov got the groups and arrival timings in the Americas correct. They call Nabokov鈥檚 proposed rearrangement 鈥渦ncannily correct鈥� ().