AS the Big Butterfly Count 2017 takes flight, thousands of people in Oxfordshire and across the UK are hunting for our country's most popular and beautiful insects.

But have you ever wondered how these tiny creatures developed their intricate, iridescent and inviting patterns?

One biology lecturer at Oxford Brookes has spent the past 20 years of his life trying to work out just that.

Dr Casper Breuker took time out to tell the Oxford Mail a little about his research.

WE'VE all seen a butterfly in our garden or while walking and admired their beautiful patterns.

But what how can those designs possibly make it from the parent insect, through the egg stage, buried in a caterpillar's DNA to emerge again in the next generation?

Oxford Brookes University's senior lecturer in Biology Dr Casper Breuker has been researching the evolutionary development of butterflies for nearly two decades and is at the forefront of research into butterfly embryology, mainly using the speckled wood butterfly.

These charming and mottled little chaps measure 5cm across and can be found on the borders of woodland across the UK, including here in Oxfordshire.

Recent university funding is providing Dr Breuker with more time and a research assistant to work on an international collaboration with the University of Cologne, Germany, on butterfly embryogenesis – the early stages of that process of getting from egg to adult.

He explained: "A key aspect of butterfly embryogenesis is patterning of the embryo along the main body axes: head to tail (anterior-posterior or AP), and back to front (dorsal-ventral or DV).

"The gene regulatory networks involved (GRNs) – in particular that of DV patterning – are among the best characterised in insect developmental biology.

"Comparative work involving characterising DV patterning in a variety of insect species has been instrumental in revealing how embryonic GRNs can evolve."

Much of this work has been led by Professor Siegfried Roth from the University of Cologne – one of the most renowned experts in the field of developmental biology.

But here in Oxford, Dr Breuker has been making breakthroughs of his own.

He went on: "In my lab, I have recently been focussing on butterfly AP patterning.

"The work has shown that butterflies are very different to other insects in terms of maternal regulation of embryonic AP patterning and embryonic gene expression patterns.

"These findings have gained considerable interest and in particular the finding that butterflies are also very unusual in that mothers are very precise in outlining exactly where the embryo will form in an egg after that egg has been fertilised.

"Such specification constitutes in fact one of the most complex and divergent maternal RNA localisation patterns ever observed, which differs significantly from other insects and which is likely to affect how DV patterning is regulated."

With the Oxford Brookes breakthroughs, Dr Breuker said his team now has a unique opportunity to establish a timely collaboration with Professor Roth and investigate what may actually prove to be most divergent of insect patterning mechanisms yet.

The collaborative project, entitled 'All back to front? Dorsal-ventral patterning in butterflies', is expect to be completed by the end of 2017.

In the meantime, this year's Big Butterfly Count runs until August 6 and volunteers are wanted over the country.

If you feel inspired to help out, go to bigbutterflycount.org