Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2024 May 21

= May 21 =

Butterflies of Daviess County, KY (Papilionidae)
In Daviess County, Kentucky (or generally along the Ohio River or within a reasonable distance south thereof), how late in the year was the latest-ever sighting of Papilio glaucus? (Here in Central California, all tiger swallowtail species disappear in the first days of September -- my latest confirmed sighting of P. multicaudata was on September 1, and of P. rutulus on September 4 -- is it more-or-less the same over there?) Asking for a local and/or an expert -- and no pictures, please! 2601:646:8082:BA0:250E:98C8:7461:C819 (talk) 02:48, 21 May 2024 (UTC)


 * The pool of active RefDesk editors is quite small and is spread around the Anglosphere (or sometimes outside of it), so finding anyone from that locality or an entomologist here is a bit unlikely. A Google search only found backyardecology.net - Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterflies (with pictures) which says: "In Kentucky, we typically see the adults flying from April until September". Alansplodge (talk) 14:33, 21 May 2024 (UTC)


 * Thanks, but I was hoping for a bit more detail -- do they fly until early September (like their close relatives here in California), or until the end of September, or what? (The reason why I ask is, a friend of mine is over there on a farm caring for a sick relative, and I want to come over and help her with the farm itself, but at the same time I want to avoid any chance of a close encounter with one of those creepy critters out in the open (I think I told you more than once before how I feel about the Eastern tiger and about any other butterfly that looks like it -- with the exception of P. canadensis and P. machaon because they're nice and small, and also P. zelicaon because it's not only small but also its stripes are barely visible)!  But I think since they only hatch in April (here in California I see P. rutulus beginning in mid-March), they shouldn't be flying any later in the year than they do here, so I should be "safe" beginning with the second week of September!  (And just to be clear, other swallowtails like Papilio troilus are perfectly fine by me -- only tiger-striped ones aren't!) 2601:646:8082:BA0:A400:D9D:C5FD:AB24 (talk) 03:44, 24 May 2024 (UTC)


 * Broadening the topic somewhat, you might be interested (if you aren't already familiar with it) by the subject of Phenology. Climate change is obviously having a large influence on previously reliable annual timings of natural phenomena: in my part of the world (southern England), many trees are blooming, etc., up to a month earlier than a few decades ago. Doubtless the emergence, migrations and numbers of annual broods of insects are also changing, so they can appear later as well as earlier. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.2.67.173 (talk) 09:57, 22 May 2024 (UTC)
 * Try calling 270-684-0211, the main number for the county public library in Owensboro. (Lest you embarrass yourself — be aware that the county name is pronounced "Davis", not "Davey's" or "Davy-ess".)  Unfortunately their website's "contact" page, https://www.dcplibrary.org/contact, doesn't give either an email address or a form to write a help request.  Nyttend (talk) 02:18, 23 May 2024 (UTC)
 * Thanks, but I just had a better idea -- is there a zoo and/or a university in Owensboro? Because if so, I think I'll try asking them (and if not, then I'll try Louisville -- the climate is more-or-less the same there, so these critters should disappear at about the same time in both places!) 2601:646:8082:BA0:C564:9993:1EA4:838E (talk) 23:17, 24 May 2024 (UTC)

Pseudouridine - why is it the fifth nucleotide?
I saw that in the scientific literature, pseudouridine is considered the fifth nucleotide. For example:,. My question is why is it called the fifth and not the sixth? To the best of my knowledge, when pseudouridine was discovered in the 1950's, the known nucleotides were: A,C,T,G,U = five nucleotides. So why isn't pseudouridine the sixth nucleotide? Thanks 2A01:6500:A042:E52F:970A:37C0:5DE7:C30E (talk) 11:25, 21 May 2024 (UTC)


 * The original paper seems to be the 1956 publication 10.1016/S0021-9258(18)70770-9 which, in Table 1, shows they only considered A,G,C and U as known in RNA at that time. Mike Turnbull (talk) 15:22, 21 May 2024 (UTC)
 * T is not normally found in RNA, being replaced by U -- that must be the reason why. 2601:646:8082:BA0:A400:D9D:C5FD:AB24 (talk) 03:48, 24 May 2024 (UTC)