The latest news about entomology, brought to you by the Entomological Society of America
By Kevin Fitzgerald Every autumn, the Migration Festival takes place at Lighthouse Point on the seacoast of Connecticut near New Haven. It’s a celebration of flying creatures: birds, butterflies, and dragonflies. This event is a cooperative effort sponsored by the New Haven Parks, Recreation, and Tree Department; New Haven Bird Club; Audubon Connecticut; Menunkatuck Audubon […]
By Richard Levine Today I wrote a guest article for the Oxford University Press Blog. The monarch butterfly is famous for its migratory route, which can be as long as 2,500 miles. Unfortunately, the end of its destination is a mountainous part of Mexico that is home to oaks, pines and Oyamel firs, which are […]
It’s been known for some time that toxins produced by milkweed plants can protect monarch butterlfy caterpillars from predators, such as birds, and from various parasites. Now researchers from the University of Michigan and Emory University have shown that root fungi that form a symbiotic relationship with milkweed plants also play a role in disease […]
Eight new articles on monarch butterflies were published today in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America. “This group of papers is intended to give us the latest and best data available on the status of monarch populations and perhaps point the way to our best efforts to protect them,” said Lawrence E. Hurd, […]
The monarch butterfly is the Bambi of the insect world in North America, a favorite among children and adults because of its colorful wings and its migratory pattern, which takes it as far north as Canada and south into Mexico and California where it overwinters. For decades, monarch populations have fluctuated, as this graph from […]
