The spectacular migration of the Monarch from northeastern America to its overwintering grounds in Mexico requires the butterfly to set its time-compensated compass south in the autumn, then north in the spring for its return home. The stimulus responsible for compass resetting has been identified as a reduction in temperature.

The butterfly universe photo was made using water sprayed on glass that had been treated with Dupont’s Rain X, which allows the droplets to be much larger than normal. The droplets become wide-angle lenses when you place an object underneath the sprayed glass. The droplets are then photographed with a macro lens. In this picture, I placed an 8 10 photo of a monarch butterfly underneath the glas...

The annual migration of the Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) from eastern North America to central Mexico is one of nature's most inspiring spectacles. Recent studies including one in BMC Biology, have begun to dissect the molecular and neurogenetic basis for this most complex behavior.

The mechanisms by which some animals are able to achieve astonishing feats of migration have often eluded researchers because of the difficulty of designing suitable experiments. Two Canadian researchers believe they now have a set-up to throw light on the flight of the monarch butterfly. Nigel Williams reports.

The 5,006-nucleotide (nt)-long genome of a new virus from monarch butterfly pupae was cloned and sequenced. It was flanked by inverted terminal repeats (ITRs) of 239 nt with 163-nt hairpins. The monosense genome with three open reading frames is typical of the genus Iteradensovirus in the subfamily Densovirinae of the family Parvoviridae.

We report the draft genome sequence of Commensalibacter papalotli strain MX01, isolated from the intestines of an overwintering monarch butterfly. The 2,332,652-bp AT-biased genome of C. papalotli MX01 is the smallest genome for a member of the Acetobacteraceae family and provides the first evidence of plasmids in Commensalibacter.

Previous studies suggest that exposure to anthers from com, Zea mays L., expressing Bac;/Z%? (Bt)-derived protein may have adverse effects on larvae of the monarch butterfly, Danawa (L.). The objectives of this research were to: 1) measure the effects of short-term and long-term exposure to anthers in the laboratory, 2) examine anther distribution in space and time, 3) measure the effects of lo...