Marfa Lights
Apache
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Post
1 Block West of Hampton Inn
Hwy 90, Alpine, TX
Mon-Sat 9-6 • (432) 837-5506
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Marathon Motel
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Private Bath/Cable TV
Full Hookups/30 & 50 amp Pull-thrus
432.386.4241
HWY 90 W • Marathon • www.marathonmotel.com
2010
July 3 ~ July 4th Celebration
Chili Cook-off, Dance & BBQ
Sept. 18 -19 ~ Westfest at Post Park
October 15 & 16 ~ Marathon 2 Marathon
Nov. 7 ~ Cowboy Social
Ritchey Bros. Building • 3 p.m. - 6 p.m.
Dec. 4 ~ Fiesta De Noche Bueno
Front Street • 7 p.m. - 9 p.m.
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continued from page 4
Classic Collectibles of the Big Bend
could lay up to 400 hundred
eggs before dying.
Each hatched egg produces
an insatiable leaf-eating larva
that molts five times and
becomes increasingly larger.
The fifth instar, a plump 2-inch
long dazzling yellow and black
and white striped caterpillar,
urgently searches for a discreet
green haven in which to hide the
final transformation. Here the
caterpillar spins a silk pad and
attaches it securely to a stem or
the underside of a leaf. Hooking
into the silk pad, it lets itself
hang upside down.
Before long the caterpillar
begins to shed its exoskeleton. A
chrysalid takes its place and
hardens into a thing of beauty –
a spring green capsule. The
chrysalid is dotted here and
there with metallic gold spots.
Near the top a half necklace of
gold forms along the crest.
Inside the capsule the secret of
life takes place as the liquefied
caterpillar forms organs and
body parts.
Within 35 days of the egg
laying, the first Monarch broods
are mature enough to continue
the migration north, staying east
of the Rockies. The females
search for milkweed and lay
eggs along the way. These multi-
ple generations increase the
population and protect against
species loss during the migration
and the long overwintering. The
males move north too but linger
longer in the milkweed mead-
ows of summer staking out terri-
tory and patrolling for females.
Three or four generations of
Monarchs migrate as far as
southern and eastern Canada
until the shortening daylight of
late August produces the last
generation of the year. This fall
brood of Monarchs will read the
sun and follow it south to the
wintering colonies concentrated
in a belt of volcanic mountain
ranges and valleys in the states of
Michoacan and Mexico.
They will glide on thermals
like migrating birds, resting
when the wind is unfavorable or
cold, to conserve their stores of
fat. They will nectar along the
way on the flowers of fall – gold-
Cenizo
Third Quarter 2010
Photo by Greg Lasly
Hundreds of Monarchs cluster on a salt cedar in Balmorhea in the
fall of 2009.
enrod, aster, Joe Pye weed,
gayfeather and the eastern
groundsel bush. In Texas they
will find frostweed and cowpen
daisies in bloom. During their
journey they will visit fields of
blooming clover and alfalfa and
stands of sunflowers.
Their ability to see ultraviolet
light allows them to read a
flower and see where its nectar is
concentrated. The butterfly
lands and tiptoes over the petals.
When the toes of its back legs
taste sugar, the proboscis, rolled
up tight, uncoils to suck the
high-energy nectar, sweeter than
soft drinks. Stored as fat, the nec-
tar from the flora in the flyway
will keep the butterflies alive
during the winter and start them
on their way in the spring. By
November they will have
reached their winter home.
For a number of years scien-
tists have known how the
Monarch is guided by a circadi-
an clock in its brain that inter-
acts with a sun compass also
located in the brain. The find-
ings of an astounding experi-
ment focused on the navigation-
al skills of the Monarch were
published in the September
2009 issue of Science.
In a report on the Web site
Science Daily, Steven M.
Reppert M.D., professor and
chair of neurobiology and sen-
ior author of the study, said,
“We’ve known that the insect
antenna is a remarkable organ,
responsible for sensing not only
olfactory cues but wind direction
and even sound vibration.”
Reppert and his colleagues stud-
ied the antenna more closely
and found that the Monarch
also has an antennal clock. This
second antennal clock commu-