Werke von Anurag Agrawal
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- #307,430
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Anyway so monarchs! and milkweed, because apparently the term "swan plant" (that we use in New Zealand) hasn't caught on in the US despite the seed pods looking exactly like swans! Short version: monarchs are terrible pollinators and milkweed would rather not be eaten by its caterpillars. So it makes itself super poisonous via cardenolides. So monarchs (and a few other species specialising in other parts of the plant) have mutated themselves so they can nom the plant anyway and become poisonous themselves, a fact that they advertise to potential predators via bright colouring. In fact if a butterfly has been infected with parasites she might lay her eggs on an even more poisonous variety which is a bit harder for the caterpillars to eat but kills off the parasites: that's right, butterflies self-medicate. Sadly some predators have worked out which parts of the caterpillar and/or butterfly they can safely eat - and indeed the plant can send out pheromones to attract such predators - and thus the circle of life continues.
In the US, monarchs also migrate the heck out of the continent and literally weigh down trees as they overwinter; however they have different behaviour in New Zealand (and other areas they're not native to) which sadly the book doesn't get into. It discusses the declining North American population and various hypotheses for why; it seems to treat fairly even the hypotheses the author doesn't agree with.
Fantastic state-of-current-knowledge of a specialised but accessible field, well worth the read.… (mehr)