Research suggests monarch butterflies may be in less danger than we think
The migratory monarch butterfly might not be as endangered as previously thought, according to a new study published in Current Biology.
The migratory monarch butterfly might not be as endangered as previously thought, according to a new study published in Current Biology.
Plants & Animals
Aug 25, 2023
3
456
Michigan State University ecologists led an international research partnership of professional and volunteer scientists to reveal new insights into what's driving the already-dwindling population of eastern monarch butterflies ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 19, 2021
6
730
(PhysOrg.com) -- A Cornell study on the diversity of milkweed plants has used new techniques to prove an old theory that explains how the arms race between attacking insects and defended plants led to great diversity of both.
Plants & Animals
Sep 9, 2009
2
0
A trio of German entomologists has found that young monarch caterpillars switch from avoiding milkweed-toxin-rich latex to eating it as they get older. Their paper is published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society ...
Many gardeners will tell you that aphids are the bane of their existence. According to a new study from the University of Florida, these tiny pests also pose problems for the iconic monarch butterfly. The study found that ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 26, 2023
0
313
For the first time, milkweed butterflies have been sighted feeding on live caterpillars—their own species' young. Researchers suggest they do this to increase their supply of mating pheromones.
Plants & Animals
Sep 9, 2021
0
784
When Canadian conservation enthusiasts head out to find monarch eggs, it's always with a magnifying glass and a notebook. They are volunteers taking part in a summer census of the iconic, endangered butterflies.
Ecology
Aug 28, 2021
2
1178
Inspired by his own butterfly garden at home, a Florida Atlantic University neuroscientist got a unique look at how monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) caterpillars behave when food is scarce. The results look something ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 19, 2020
0
103
It's easy to think of cities as being the enemy of nature. When we talk about escaping the skyscrapers and car horns, we have visions of breathing in fresh mountain air while hiking through forests in mind. But for Monarch ...
Ecology
Jun 21, 2019
2
6
An international collaboration of researchers, including from the School of Life Sciences at the University of Warwick, have sequenced the genome of the milkweed bug, enabling scientists to understand at the molecular level ...
Ecology
Apr 1, 2019
0
152
Asclepias L. (1753), the milkweeds, is a genus of herbaceous perennial, dicotyledonous plants that contains over 140 known species. It previously belonged to the family Asclepiadaceae, but this is now classified as the subfamily Asclepiadoideae of the dogbane family Apocynaceae.
Milkweed is named for its milky juice, which contains alkaloids, latex, and several other complex compounds including cardenolides. Some species are known to be toxic.
Carl Linnaeus named the genus after Asclepius, the Greek god of healing, because of the many folk-medicinal uses for the milkweed plants.
Pollination in this genus is accomplished in an unusual manner. Pollen is grouped into complex structures called pollinia (or "pollen sacs"), rather than being individual grains or tetrads, as is typical for most plants. The feet or mouthparts of flower visiting insects such as bees, wasps and butterflies, slip into one of the five slits in each flower formed by adjacent anthers. The bases of the pollinia then mechanically attach to the insect, pulling a pair of pollen sacs free when the pollinator flies off. Pollination is effected by the reverse procedure in which one of the pollinia becomes trapped within the anther slit.
Asclepias species produce their seeds in follicles. The seeds, which are arranged in overlapping rows, have white silky filament-like hairs known as pappus, silk, or floss. The follicles ripen and split open and the seeds, each carried by several dried pappus, are blown by the wind. They have many different flower colorations.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA