If you're not from a part of the U.S.A. that read the "Li'l Abner" comics by Al Capp, you may not know Sadie Hawkins Day - but butterflies do.   Sadie Hawkins, as comic strip aficionados know, was 'the homeliest gal in the hills' so her prominent father, worried about her never finding a husband, invented a day where women could chase men and marriage was the result.   The strip debuted in November of 1937 and was wildly popular, resulting in Sadie Hawkins dances all over the country for decades since.

The cool days of November aren't lucky for just bachelor men.  Butterflies have sex role reversal when the days get cooler as well.

Raised in the tradtional warmer season as larvae, males take up the traditional roles of suitor, displaying their wing designs to the females who do the choosing.   But females instead actively court males after being exposed to cool, dry temperatures as caterpillars.


When temperatures are cooler, female Bicyclus anynana actively court males, which take on the same role when temperatures are warmer.   Credit: William H. Piel and Antonia Monteiro/Courtesy of Yale University

Those females raised in the cooler season and actively courting males will also live longer lives once they mate relative to their mated counterparts in the hotter season who are engaged in more passive mate shopping.  Yes, hunting for males can help females live longer.

The research began when Kathleen L. Prudic, post-doctoral researcher, and Antonia Monteiro, professor in ecology and evolutionary biology at Yale asked why female squinting bush brown butterflies or Bicyclus anynana had beautiful ornamental patterns shaped like eyes on their wings just as males did. In most species, males end up with often elaborate and colorful ornamentation to attract mates while females, who do the selecting, tend toward duller displays. The researchers theorized that perhaps courtship behavior might change given different environmental conditions. They tested the behavior of butterflies raised in larval stage at 27 degrees C and at 17 degrees C. 

As expected, female Bicyclus anynana in warmer moister conditions that mimic the wet season in the native African range were more likely to mate with males with ornamented wings. However, the roles were reversed in cooler drier climates. Females played the role of suitors and flashed their eye spots to choosy males. When scientists studied the wing spots, which reflect light in the UV range, invisible to humans, they found they were brighter in the courting females relative to the males of that same season, or relative to females raised in the hotter season.

Prudic said that male butterflies also deliver nutrients as well as sperm during mating and that in less than optimal times for reproduction (the dry cool season) these male offerings appear to lead to increased female longevity. Females want to survive through the dry season and furiously display to as many males as possible in order to obtain these resources from males. Males, on the other hand, become very careful about choosing who they give these resources to because once they do, they liver shorter lives. Only the ladies carrying bright eyespots have a good chance of attracting a mate.