James Bayley Butler with the Royal Army Medical Corps, beginning as a lieutenant in 1915 and retiring a major after the war. For his service, he was awarded an MBE. Butler's primary research interest was in applied biology. He carried out research on "Catenaria anguillulae", a parasite of the ova of the liver fluke, from 1922 to 1932. Later on, Butler focused on the control of wood-boring beetles and the fungus that causes dry rot in wood "Serpula lacrymans". On this matter, he became an international expert, and assisted in the development of the company Biotox, which manufactured insecticides and fungicides for use
Serpula all sabellids and serpulids employ chlorocruorin as an oxygen transport macromolecule, "Serpula" is the only genus that appears to possess both hemoglobin as well as chlorocruorin. Chlorocruorin is an oxygen-binding hemeprotein whose affinity for oxygen is weaker than that of most hemoglobins. A dichromatic compound, chlorocruorin is noted for appearing green in dilute solutions, though it appears light red when found in concentrated solutions. Its structure is very similar to erythrocruorin, each molecule being composed of more than a hundred interlinked 16-17kDa myoglobin-like subunits arranged in a giant complex with a total weight exceeding 3600kDa. This enormous macromolecule is free