Marta Skowron Volponi, a PhD student of the Faculty of Biology at the University of Gdańsk, received the award for the presentation of “Not solely morphological mimics: imitation of hymenopteran flight trajectories in clearwing moths (Sesiidae) of Southeast Asian rainforests” presented at the international entomological conference – XI European Entomology Congress in Naples.

The laureate presented the results of biomechanics research on the flight of butterflies from the family of the sightseers, conducted in cooperation with the University of California in Berkeley and the University of Macquarie in Sydney.

After filming butterflies, bees and wasps, and comparing their flight trajectories, it turned out that bee- like butterflies fly slower, in an irregular way, similar to bees, while the gnat- like butterflies fly faster, more regularly and in a simpler way, just like wasps. This is the first research-based evidence for the occurrence of behavioral mimicry in this group of butterflies.