Fiction

Bhéwonom
Richard A. Bartle
72,000 words
2024

Bonus Matter: Butterflies

Summary

Butterflies

Report

COLLIDERNETWORK collidernetwork-bounces@lists.ucl.ac.uk on behalf of Girardo Sasso girardo.sasso@inf.infn.it

[COLLIDERNETWORK] Strange occurrences.

To: COLLIDERNETWORK@lists.ucl.ac.uk

Melanie:

I was reminded by Dr Tsuzuki’s tale of the spiders of something odd that happened in Frascati, where DAFNE has been colliding electrons and positrons for a quarter of a century. Fortunately, what happened here was not as grisly as the fate that befell Dr Tsuzuki’s friend, nor can it truly be described as an event, but it is perplexing nevertheless.

In essence, what took place was that three enormous butterflies new to science were discovered dead in the Tuscolo Archaeological Cultural Park. It is not know where they came from, but so large were their wingspans — some 25cm — that they could not have survived for long when exposed to non-tropical conditions.

There are only two known species of butterfly with a larger wingspan than 25cm: the Goliath Birdwing and Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing, both native to the island of New Guinea. The three new butterflies were therefore the cause of great excitement among entomologists. While of similar size and metallic-looking scales, the butterflies exhibited very different markings; a preliminary DNA analysis soon determined them to be separate species, rather than different varieties of the same species.

Although some effort was made to ascertain the origin of the butterflies, no progress was made and the mystery remains.

I apologise for the lack of drama in this story, but it does seem to be the kind of phenomenon that may be of interest to you, especially when taken in conjunction with Dr Tsuzuki’s experience in Japan.

Girardo

Notes

None.

Where You Can Get it

Bhéwonom is available in print and Kindle format from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com and other Amazon stores.
 

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