Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
A monarch butterfly feeding on milkweed. (Shutterstock) The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is pushing for added protections for the monarch butterfly after seeing a population decline of about 80%.
Bright orange milkweed aphids (Aphis nerii) usually emerge toward the end of summer and feed in clusters on the stems and leaves of common milkweed, swamp milkweed, and other milkweed plants ...
Unlike the flashy orange and black warning colors of an adult monarch butterfly, the adult milkweed tussock moth has wings of a muted gray but does retain some yellow and black striping on its ...
Since then, it has been found in every monarch population examined to date, including monarchs sampled in North America, Hawaii, Australia, Cuba, and Central and South America. Dormant spores occur on the cuticles of butterflies, in between the butterfly's scales. They are small, brown or black objects about 1/100 the width of a butterfly scale.
Monarch Watch is a volunteer-based citizen science organization that tracks the fall migration of the monarch butterfly. [1] It is self-described as "a nonprofit education, conservation, and research program based at the University of Kansas that focuses on the monarch butterfly, its habitat, and its spectacular fall migration ."
A monarch butterfly on swamp milkweed Asclepias syriaca seed pods, upper image from August and lower from December Milkweed sprout, a few days after sowing Chemical structure of oleandrin, one of the cardiac glycosides. Members of the genus produce some of the most complex flowers in the plant kingdom, comparable to orchids in complexity.
Milkweed plants are a major food source for Monarch and Queen butterfly caterpillars and as with other milkweed plants, it bleeds white latex if a stem is cut and this sap is toxic to some animals and to humans. It also makes Monarch and Queen butterflies taste bad to potential predators, an effective defense mechanism.
The caterpillars of the monarch butterfly feed on the foliage. The larva of the milkweed leaf-miner (Liriomyza asclepiadis) mine the leaves. Aphids that can be found on the plant include the yellow milkweed aphid (Aphis nerii), black aphid (Aphis rumicis), and the green peach aphid (Myzus persicae). [5] The ruby-throated hummingbird takes ...