Monarch Butterflies And Chemical Pollution

I enjoyed my many years of participation in the Monarch Larvae Monitoring Project. Milkweed is the larvae's host plant. Unfortunately common milkweed (asclepias syriaca) has not done well

The monarch butterfly travels long distances to get to their nesting grounds. The monarch’s migration takes a total of 3000 miles. Their nesting grounds is located in the Sierra

It then discusses the decreasing in Mexican overwintering populations and the decreases of milkweed. In the introduction they link the increasing use of “glyphosate herbicide increased in conjunction with the increased adoption of glyphosate-tolerant corn and soybeans,” (10) to the decreasing amounts of milkweed. They then present one of the problems which faced they was how to monitor the population of monarch butterflies. They show the advantages and disadvantages of two different methods already being used. These are as follows: tagging adult monarchs and counting migrating monarchs in areas where they become concentrated. However, these techniques are not being used to count monarchs in the Midwest so they decided to determine the destiny of monarch eggs on milkweed in a variety of different patches. They then used the amount of eggs per plant to determine “the effect of milkweed resource limitation on monarch production,”

Unfortunately, Michoacán’s main avocado breeding area is also the key migration stop for western monarch butterflies. Those cool orange-and-black butterflies are being decimated out west because Mexican farmers are cutting every tree in sight to grow more avocados to feed a trend that will probably be as dead as acai berry elixir and pomegranate-love by the time their avocado trees grow. [Note: eastern monarchs migrate to

The circadian clock in monarch not only determine when an adult butterfly will emerge from its chrysalis, but it is also involved in the time-compensated sun compass. Previous studies have shown that circadian clock provides the internal timing deceive that allows the butterfly to correct their fight orientation. If the circadian clock in the monarch is destroyed, it destroys the migrant’s ability to calibrate their orientation based on time of day. The circadian clock mechanism is known in the butterfly, it relies on a negative transcriptional feedback loop that involves the transcription factors CLOCK (CLK) and CYCLE (CYC), which drive the expression of period(per), timeless (tim) and a vertebrate-like cryptochrome, designated cry2. The translated

When it is cold outside in the United States of America, monarch butterflies migrate to warmer places such as Mexico. This contributes to the decline of monarchs because in Mexico they are having deforestation problems. For example, there have been late winter storms causing over 100 acres of trees to fall down in Central Mexico (Deere, 2017). This causes a problem because monarch butterflies will have no place to live during the winter months in the United States of America. Researchers say that during the storm over 6.2 million butterflies have died (Deere, 2017). That is a lot of butterflies. This is a major problem because monarch butterflies are a food source for many animals and if they go extinct the food cycle will get messed up. This is a hard problem to fix to try to stop the decline of monarchs because you would have to get the monarchs to migrate to another place with lots of trees and that will not be destroyed.

According the Helping the Monarch Butterfly’s website, the monarch butterfly goes through four stages before it is fully matured: the egg, the larvae, the pupa, and the adult butterfly. The first stage begins with mated butterflies migrating north or east to safely lay their eggs on milkweed plants. When hatched, entering the larvae stage, the baby caterpillars then feed on the milkweed for two weeks. After stuffing itself full for weeks, the caterpillar

In 1992, a trained insect ecologist, Chip Taylor, created the Monarch Watch at the University of Kansas. Mr. Taylor created this program because

Another problem that promotes the monarch butterflies extinction is logging in the 12 forested mountaintops in central Mexico. These are the most famous locations where the monarch butterflies travel for the fall, eve thought Canada and the eastern United States are the more popular habitats for the monarch butterflies. However, these trees in the fall are not an ideal environment for the butterflies. As seen by the Ikonos satellite, deforestation had been a common in the years between 2004 and 2008 in the Core Zone, even though it was made illegal by the Mexican government.

During the larvae, pupa, or caterpillar stage the butterflies only live on Milkweed plants. The Milkweed plants glycogen toxins which don't have any effect on the Monarchs, but this plant is poisonous to the Monarchs predators. Monarchs eat all sections of the milkweed plant and they store the toxins in their bodies. Adult Monarchs eat nectar from a big range of flowers, including the milkweed.

Evaluating the effects of different climate and weather conditions on the winter migration of the monarch butterfly is complicated due to the lack of concrete statistical research on the number of successful migrants under varying environmental settings. Our study addresses this concern by simulating the effects of different noise levels (weather conditions) on a desirability plot (climate conditions) through an algorithm embedded within a Python program. Tests were conducted on four different noise levels (0 through 1.5 at 0.5 intervals, inclusive), each consisting of 40 trials with 100 butterflies per trial. The average percentage of successful migrants was higher with a noise level of 1.5 than no noise (96.725% vs 93.475%, respectively: P0.05 significance levels.

My mother and I agreed to stop for a short rest and sorely needed water break. We stopped near a bench to drink our water and tie our sneakers. As I knelt down to tie my shoes, I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I recognized the creature instantaneously after having read about it from a book my mother bought me from Barnes and Nobles. It was a resplendent Monarch butterfly caterpillar with black, white and yellow stripes. The caterpillar was peacefully chewing away on the underside of a Milkweed leave, its main staple. In awe, I carefully pulled the leave from the stalk and placed it in my jar, eager to see it under a microscope for the first time. According to my readings, the Monarch butterfly was an endangered species because of the widespread pesticide spraying on their main stay of

In response to negative views on monoculture impacts to pollinators, Monsanto has written that they want to be a part of the effort to restore the native pollinator population (Monsantoco). Monsanto recognizes the concern with the decline of monarchs and that it is occurring because of large scale agriculture. They are making an effort to restore the milkweed growth around the vast fields to promote monarch butterfly visits.

In the article “Migration of the Monarchs” the annual migration of the monarch butterfly is underway. The migration will take place in late October. Monarchs will migrate to such places as Mexico, Northern Florida, and the Caribbean Islands. While on the path of migration, Monarchs will be feasting on flowering plants. The plants include Penta, Milkweed, Zinnia, Lantana, Liatris, and Buddleia. Be on the lookout for the monarchs starting in October.

Over the years, the population of butterflies, bees, and other crop pollinators has been on a rapid decline, risking the production of global food supplies. There are now lesser insects compared to several years ago, mainly due to climate change, human activity and other practices that destroy the insect’s environment.