The susceptibility of the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) larvae to the neogregarine parasite, Ophryocystis elektroscirrha, was tested in the laboratory. Spore loads recovered from infected monarch butterflies were directly related to the inoculum level, larval stage of the host, and spore age. There was a linear relationship between spores ingested by first instar larvae and spore concent...

Threats to migratory animals can occur at multiple periods of the annual cycle that are separated by thousands of kilometres and span international borders. Populations of the iconic monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) of eastern North America have declined over the last 21 years. Three hypotheses have been posed to explain the decline: habitat loss on the overwintering grounds in Mexico, habi...

S 3RD INTERNATIONAL BUTTERFLY ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION SYMPOSIUM CRESTED BUTTE, COLORADO, USA AUGUST 1998 Altizer, Sonia M. Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota 55108 USA. Host migration and the prevalence of a protozoan parasite in monarch butterfly populations Seasonal migration is exhibited by many groups of animals, and may exert strong ef...

Attraction of mutualists and defense against antagonists are critical challenges for most organisms and can be especially acute for plants with pollinating and non-pollinating flower visitors. Secondary compounds in flowers have been hypothesized to adaptively mediate attraction of mutualists and defense against antagonists, but this hypothesis has rarely been tested. The tissues of milkweeds (...

The Search and Rescue optimization algorithm (SAR) is a recent metaheuristic inspired by the exploration’s behaviour for humans throughout search rescue processes. SAR applied to solve Combined Emission Economic Dispatch (CEED) Load (ELD). comparative performance of against several methods was performed assess its reliability. These algorithms include Earthworm (EWA), Grey wolf optimizer (GWO),...