Apart from being the author of several well known classic novels, Vladimir Nabokov was also the curator of Lepidoptera at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at  Harvard University, and collected insects across the United States. He published detailed descriptions of hundreds of species. In a speculative moment in 1945, he came up with a sweeping hypothesis for the evolution of the butterflies he studied, a group known as the Polyommatus blues. He envisioned them coming to the New World from Asia over millions of years in a series of waves.

Few professional lepidopterists took these ideas seriously during Nabokov's lifetime. But in the years since his death in 1977, his scientific reputation has grown. And over the past 10 years, a team of scientists has been applying gene-sequencing technology to his hypothesis about how Polyommatus blues evolved. Scientists from Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (CSIC-UPF) report that Nabokov was absolutely right in a manuscript published  this week in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London.

Reference Article:

Vila, R., Bell, C.D., Macniven, R., Goldman-Huertas, B., Ree, R.H., Marshall, C.R., Bálint, Zs., Johnson, K., Benyamini, D. & N.E. Pierce (2011) Phylogeny and paleoecology of Polyommatus blue butterflies show Beringia was a climate-regulated gateway to the New World. Proceedings of the Royal Society Series B (published online before press).

"more info at": NYtimes,  La Vanguardia(26/01/11),  http://www.rferl.org/content/vladimir_nabokov_butterfly_theories/2291121.html; http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2011/01/27/nabokov-was-right-all-along/;http://scienceblogs.com/bioephemera/2011/01/nabokov_was_right_-_so_was_gou.php

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