[NatureNS] Queen Bee

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Date: Sun, 05 Jul 2015 14:19:20 -0300
To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca
From: Phil Schappert <philjs@eastlink.ca>
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At 3:58 PM +0000 7/5/15, Stephen Shaw wrote:
>The Xerces outfit (see url below from Peter) has quite a wide mandate.

The founder of the Xerces Society, Bob Pyle, was (and still is) a 
hero of mine. His book, the Audubon Society Handbook for Butterfly 
Watchers, was a godsend for me in the mid-80s and should be required 
reading for any/all butterfly watchers...

>I'd heard about one species (Anax junius), but was surprised to 
>learn from the Xerces site that they know or suspect that at least 5 
>species of dragonfly are north-south migratory, like some 
>populations of the monarch butterfly.  Most of the monarch 
>populations world-wide are non-migratory, and surprisingly, 
>molecular phylogeny reveals that the migratory habit of the North 
>American groups apparently developed as a later offshoot in 
>evolution, not early.

I don't find it particularly surprising that many dragonflies are 
migratory, only that it took us so long to figure it out (!). For 
more info about dragonfly migration, I urge folks to visit the 
Migratory Dragonfly Partnership site at 
http://www.migratorydragonflypartnership.org/index/welcome

The migratory habit (I use "migration" loosely when in comes to 
Monarchs since they are only one-way migrants) in North American 
Monarchs is likely due to a single factor, the natural north 
temperate (seasonal and continental) range of Asclepias syriaca, the 
"common" milkweed. I think that Monarchs are best considered 
"re-colonists" in their spring northward movements since they follow 
the seasonal emergence of milkweed and "leap-frog" over preceding 
generations.

The Danaids, as a whole, are almost entirely restricted to the 
tropics except for two species, D. plexippus (the Monarch) and D. 
gilippus (the Queen), however, the Queen is a far more recent 
arrival, dependent on the rapid incorporation of A. curasavicca (the 
tropical milkweed) into gardens across much of North America. The 
Queen is now known to "migrate" as far north as New Jersey in some 
years. There are many other migrants in the Danaidae, including the 
Blue Crow (Euploea core), which congregate seasonally in roost sites 
due to seasonal changes in moisture regimes (eg. dry and wet 
seasons), all WITHIN the tropics.

Phil

-- 

Phil Schappert, PhD

27 Clovis Ave.
Halifax, NS, B3P 1J3

philschappert.ca
imaginaturestudio.ca
imaginaturestudio.blogspot.ca
philschappert.com

"Just let imagination lead, reality will follow through..."
                                        (Michael Hedges)

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