The Monarch Butterfly:
Biology and Conservation
Karen S. Oberhauser and Michelle J. Solensky, Editors
Cornell University Press. Ithaca, NY
2004, 248 pp.
Price: $39.95
ISBN: 0-8014-4188-9
Recently, a large photograph in the Washington Post (Washington, DC)
showed a little boy holding a monarch butterfly that he had just tagged.
This is not an uncommon photograph to find in U.S. newspapers. The
Monarch butterfly, with its beauty and unique migratory behavior,
fascinates adults as well as children, nonbiologists as well as
biologists. Although this book is about the biological observations and
research presented at the Monarch Populations Dynamics Conference in
Lawrence, KS, in 2001, it will appeal to anyone who is interested in
biology.
The impetus for this book was provided by the 5th Annual Meeting of the
Trilateral Committee for Wildlife and Ecosystem Conservation and
Management held on South Padre Island, TX, in 2000. The book is divided
into four parts, each of which begins with a well-written overview by
one of the editors.
Part I, Breeding Biology, describes various influences on egg masses,
parasites and predators of eggs and larvae, and male mating success. The
final chapter in this section , “Survival of Experimental Cohorts of
Monarch Larvae following Exposure to Transgenic Bt Corn Pollen and
Anthers,” is a response to critiques of the authors’ previous research
that the presence of anther parts influenced their results. In this
study, they found that “monarch larvae feeding on milkweed plants within
Bt cornfields will be exposed to anthers expressing the Bt toxin,” but
studies are needed to determine instar-specific consumption rates of
anthers. With the recent flurry of controversial research papers with
differing results in this area, it provides a useful, up-to-date
bibliography.
Part II, Migration Biology, attests to the contribution of “citizen
scientists” who collaborate with research scientists to track the
monarch butterflies as they migrate in the fall through Minnesota and
Texas to the mountains of central Mexico, and in the spring as they
migrate north. One chapter looks at migration despite environmental
changes, and another describes the use of ornithological techniques on
the Virginia coast to study the migration. The chapter “Documenting the
Spring Movements of Monarch Butterflies with Journey North, a Citizen
Science Program,” describes a program that involved students K–12 in a
study of migration. The students entered their data via the Internet and
shared their observations with students across the United States.
Part III is Overwintering Biology. This section describes historical and
current studies on overwintering populations in Mexico and California.
This part includes chapters on basic biological questions, such as how
population numbers are estimated in Mexico and California. It also
includes chapters on the importance of forest dynamics in the study of
the monarch populations, a geopolitical look at where the butterflies
have occurred in Mexico, and a description of a new, protected area for
the monarchs.
This title of Part IV, Integrated Biology, is a bit understated and
should have been something like “New Frontiers.” The second chapter in
this section is fascinating. It looks at the impact of a protozoan
parasite on monarch populations. The third chapter is about monarchs in
Australia. Who knew monarchs flew “down under”? Finally, there is
chapter that uses the latest in software techniques to make predictions
about the monarch populations.
I highly recommend this book—it is well written and the most up-to-date
compilation of research on this highly visible organism. Nonbiologists
should not be discouraged by the lack of photographs or the abundance of
statistics. Each chapter has a clear results-and-discussion section that
will appeal to everyone.
M. Alma Solis
Systematic Entomology Laboratory
USDA, Smithsonian Institution,
P.O. Box 37012, National Museum of Natural History, E-517, MRC 168,
Washington, DC 20013-7012
asolis@sel.barc.usda.gov
American Entomologist
Vol. 51, No.2, Summer 2005 |
