Canceled flights: For monarch butterflies, loss of migration means more disease
Thursday, January 29, 2015 - 15:50
in Biology & Nature
Ecologists have found that sedentary winter-breeding monarch butterflies are at increased risk of disease, a discovery that could apply to other migratory species as well. But, for the monarchs, there may be a relatively simple solution: the monarchs' winter-breeding behavior is made possible by the presence of tropical milkweed, and the authors recommend that gardeners gradually replace it with native milkweeds as they become available.