May 28, 2014 12:31 PM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

A team of researchers has discovered that insects in Europe with a lighter color to them actually thrive in a warming climate.

For their study, the multi-institutional team examined butterflies and dragonflies that are lighter than some of their peers, the researchers reported in a press release. Published in the journal Nature Communications, the team found that these insects may already by adapting to global warming.

"When studying biodiversity, we lack general rules about why certain species occur where they do. With this research we've been able to show that butterfly and dragonfly species across Europe are distributed according to their ability to regulate heat through their colour variation," study lead author Dirk Zeuss, of Philipps-University Marburg in Germany, said in the release.

With the help from scientists at the University of Copenhagen and the Imperial College London (ICL), the researchers made obvious links between the light southern insects and the dark northern ones to their home climate.

For the study, the researchers analyzed digital images of 473 different species of butterflies and dragonflies then compared it with data on their habitats. They found their color was tied to their climate as it is to other mechanisms, like camouflage.

"For two of the major groups of insects, we have now demonstrated a direct link between climate and insect color, which impact their geographical distribution," study co-author Carsten Rahbek, of ICL's department of Life Sciences, said in a separate release. "We now know that lighter-colored butterflies and dragonflies are doing better in a warmer world, and we have also demonstrated that the effects of climate change on where species live are not something of the future, but that nature and its ecosystems are changing as we speak."

Tracking evolutionary changes from 1988 to 2006, the researchers also discovered these insects' color actually became lighter as the climate became warmer.

"When studying biodiversity, we lack general rules about why certain species occur where they do," Zeuss said in the release. "With this research we've been able to show that butterfly and dragonfly species across Europe are distributed according to their ability to regulate heat through their color variation. Until now we could only watch the massive changes in the insect fauna during the last 20 years. Now we have an idea of what could be a strong cause of the changes."

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