Night Monkey Day Monkey by Julia Donaldson, Illustrated by Lucy Richards

I came back home after traveling out of city and the first thing I notice in our house are a couple of second-hand books from the book store nearby. I knew they were second-hand books because I had already come across one of the books (which I didn't w
ant to buy) when I combed through the childrens' books section in the book store. The good pick was Night Monkey Day Monkey by Julia Donaldson, Illustrated by Lucy Richards.

Julia Donaldson should be familiar name to the readers of this blog. Good book. Luffy likes it and finds parts of it funny. An interesting example of evolution from the book is - the "night monkey" wonders why the moths were wearing make up, to which the "day monkey" responds that they're butterflies. Butterflies operate during the day and because it is bright during the day, it makes sense for them to expend energy creating elaborately colorful wings (helps with mating). On the other hand, moths operate at night and because it's dark, they get no evolutionary advantage by spending energy unnecessarily on colorful wings.

Night and day—literally. Most moths are nocturnal; butterflies are essentially moths that have evolved to be diurnal, or active during the day, says Robert Robbins, a curator of lepidoptera at the National Museum of Natural History. Both moths and butterflies have patterned wings, but the latter also developed brightly colored wings. These colors are codes—to other butterflies, they might signal sex and mating status; to predators, they might imitate a toxic or foul-tasting species. Many moths communicate differently. For example, they may supplement their wing patterns with fragrances to attract mates or repel predators.

- The Smithsonian Magazine

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