nicates with the one in its brain
to keep the Monarch on its
migratory path.
Reppert’s team experiment-
ed on the Monarch’s antennae
in three ways. First, they surgi-
cally removed the antennae to
determine that this disabled the
butterfly’s navigational ability
altogether. Second, they dipped
the antennae in black paint and
discovered that the butterfly
could not navigate. Last, they
covered the antennae with
clear paint and found that the
butterfly could fly where it
intended.
This description might
sound like a simple experiment
any high school student could
try, but Reppert and his scien-
tists are cutting edge. They are
mapping the Monarch’s
genome.
The Monarchs’ bi-annual
migration is an unfolding mys-
tery. We now understand that
their sense of direction is an
interaction between their two
clocks and their sun compass.
And we comprehend generally
that they know where to win-
ter-over because this inherited
behavior is embedded in their
genetic chemistry. But we don’t
know how it works. Until the
mid-70s we didn’t know where
the eastern Monarchs were
going every fall.
AT LAST,
THE WINTER COLONY
As early as 1857, entomolo-
gists, beginning with the Cana -
dian W.S.M. D’Urban, began
to make notes about the
Monarch: “such vast numbers
as to darken the air by clouds of
them.”
C.V. Riley, Missouri’s first
state entomologist, suggested in
1878 that Monarchs migrated
like birds.
“Almost past belief... mil-
lions is but feebly expressive ...
miles of them is no exaggera-
tion,” is how J. Hamilton
described the Monarch migra-
tion at Brigantine, New Jersey
in the fall of 1885.
Ancient peoples in Mexico
have known for millennia
where the Monarchs spend
their winters. The indigenous
Mazahua speak of the
Monarch as seperito, “the but-
terfly that passes in October
and November.” The winter
Monarch colonies were a long
kept secret amongst the forest
people.
In the late 1930s Frederick
Urquhart, a Canadian biolo-
gist, and his wife Norah began
to tag Monarchs. By 1972 they
knew that the Monarchs fol-
lowed a northeast to southwest
migration pattern. Norah
placed notices in Mexican
newspapers asking for volun-
teers to tag the butterflies.
Another husband and wife
team, Ken and Catalina
(Cathy) Brugger, living in Mexi -
co, undertook the Urquhart’s
challenge. They tracked the
butterflies in and around the
plains and mountains of east-
ern Michoacan. Though they
felt they were getting closer to
uncovering the secret, their trail
kept running cold. Near the vil-
lage of Donata Guerra an
older man agreed to show
them where the butterflies con-
gregated. They were led
10,000 feet high first to a
colony of millions on Cerro
Pelon and then to another one
on Cerro Chincua. When the
sun shown through the clouds
whole colonies of Monarchs
lifted into the air. Color-blind,
Ken Brugger missed the fire-
works but witnessed the experi-
ence of his life.
The Urquharts arrived the
following year in 1976 to real-
ize their dream and climbed
the butterfly mountain. They
found a Monarch wearing one
of the little gummed tags that
had been issued to a volunteer.
The tag read: “Send back to
the University of Toronto
Zoology.”
Later that year, the Urqu -
harts released their scientific
discovery in the August issue of
National Geographic. “Found At
Last: The Mon archs’ Winter
Home,” the article triumphant-
ly announced. Urquhart added
this poetic description to the
annals of Monarch history:
They “filled the air with their
sun-shot wings, shimmering
against the blue mountain sky
and drifting across our vision in
blizzard flakes of orange and
black.”
This announcement marked
the beginning of a new chapter
in the story of the Monarch
that includes the conservation
of the butterfly’s winter habitat,
flyway and summer breeding
grounds. The work of tagging
the Monarch has expanded
and is now presided over by Dr.
Orley R. “Chip” Taylor at
Monarch Watch, a citizen’s sci-
entist effort to collect data for
research.
Follow the Monarch at
www.learner.org/jnorth/Monarch/
Read Eduardo Rendon at
www.worldwildlife.org/species/find
er/Monarchbutterflies/Monarchbutt
erflies.html and learn more from the
North
American
Butterfly
Association: www.naba.org
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Third Quarter 2010
27