Evolution sometimes leads up blind alley

This picture is of an Edith's checkerspot butterfly laying her eggs on some blue-eyed Mary, the plant usually eaten by its caterpillars. This week's Nature, however, describes the fate of a population of the insect in Nevada that evolved to prefer ribwort plantain, a weed introduced from Europe that is common in American cattle pastures. This particular group of checkerspots was studied for 25 years by Michael Singer and Camille Parmasan of the University of Texas at Austin. The pair watched the...