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