Mountain City Montage
by PAULINE TOM
Voice of America published this week an article from Michoacán, Mexico on monarch butterflies. U.S. scientists have discovered that a circadian clock in the monarch’s antenna plays a major role in navigation.
When researchers trimmed the antennae, they could not navigate. (This is oversimplified for sake of space.)
“The striking black and orange insects winter in these mountains every year, traveling up to 4,800 kilometers to get here, from as far away as Canada. They stay through the winter, then, in the spring, the females leave these fir tree forests and head as far north as Kansas, to lay their eggs on milkweed plants.”
Googling “Monarch Milkweed” on Monday got me to that article, published just seven hours earlier.
Google gave me more than I searched for! And, it tidbits me into what I wanted to share. Current news articles say that winter storms in Mexico destroyed at least 50 percent of the monarchs in the world this year.
Now that the eight to nine month-old butterflies are flying back, we can have a part in monarch conservation by planting milkweed.
Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberose) is a Texas native milkweed. The TPWD website says it’s not their favorite because its sap is not poisonous enough to prevent other animals from eating them. But, I’ve seen it stripped by monarch caterpillars. From this corner, it gets four bananas.
(Bananas? Rotting bananas attract butterflies. Not monarchs, though.)
Monarchwatch.org has articles published prior to the devastation this winter that tell some reasons why monarch populations were already plummeting.
“In the United States, 6,000 acres are converted to development each day, eliminating milkweeds and nectar sources for monarchs. Chemically intensive agriculture that utilizes insecticides and herbicides also eliminates monarchs and their milkweed hosts. The use of Roundup Ready soybeans, genetically engineered to resist Roundup, has resulted in the loss of at least 100 million acres of monarch habitat in row crops (corn and soybeans) since 1997.”
Tough life, five to seven weeks that it is in summer, being a monarch.
A Texas Parks & Wildlife article (October 2009) on monarchs suggested planting white mist flower, blue mist flower, fall asters, purple coneflowers and zinnias to provide energy. The milkweed plants are necessary for the eggs and caterpillars.
The coolest milkweed around here by far? Antelope’s horn!
•••
What’s cool in your corner of Mountain City? Please send tidbits to [email protected] or give me a call on the horn, 512-268-5678.
Thanks! Love, Pauline
