take over the GMO and herbicide
market with its new products set for
approval by the USDA and EPA.
For the monarch the industrializa-
tion of agriculture means not enough
milkweed on which to lay their eggs
and not enough nectar to feed on
when the caterpillars become butter-
flies.
Chip Taylor, founder of Monarch
Watch, says, “They’re taking milk-
weeds out of the system, and monarchs
are totally dependent on milkweeds;
they can’t raise their caterpillars on
anything else.”
The intricate biology of the
monarch has long held our fascination
and given rise to intense investigations.
The monarch coevolved with the milk-
weed. The plant's bitter toxins provide
protection for both caterpillar and but-
terfly, making the monarch unpalat-
able to nearly all predators. As the
monarchs fly north in search of milk-
weed, three generations of butterflies
will emerge during the summer.
Development takes about thirty days
from egg to adult. Each butterfly lives
from two to four weeks.
The fourth generation completes its
transformation in mid-August. They
feel the coming chill, monitor the posi-
tion of the sun and, equipped with an
internal magnetic compass, head
south. The sexual maturation of the
returning monarchs is delayed. Unlike
the previous generations, these butter-
flies have six times more fat, sustained
by drinking nectar from wildflowers
along the migratory corridor. Flowers
fuel the butterfly's two-to-three thou-
sand-mile journey to Mexico and keep
the butterfly alive for the duration of
the subsequent five-month hiberna-
tion. In March, at the end of hiberna-
tion, this same late summer butterfly
will fly north from its winter home,
cross into southern Texas and lay its
first eggs on spring milkweed.
Though technically we are west of
the milkweed corridor, there are fre-
quent sightings of monarchs in far west
Texas, like the clustering and
overnight roosting seen at Balmorhea
Lake. We can help offset the degrada-
tion of their migratory corridor by
planting milkweeds, several varieties of
which grow in our area. The monarch
is especially fond of Antelope Horn
milkweed, Asclepias asperula. This
milkweed is easily identified by its pod
that splits, horn-like, and releases
Monarch on milkweed., Casa Piedra, TX. Photo courtesy Wendy Lynn Wright
brown seeds attached to silky hairs.
There are also the nectar-producing
flowers that fuel the monarch's migra-
tion. Cathryn Hoyt at CDRI tells us
that monarchs “prefer brightly colored
flowers that are flat or have 'landing
platforms' for them to perch on as they
feed, such as verbena, thistles, lantana,
mistflower and salvias.”
My annual garden is a mix of
natives and non-natives, providing a
staggered bloom extending for
months. In the fall the sunflowers and
pink cosmos regularly have monarchs
feeding off their late blooms.
Though the monarch is a widely
studied insect, mysteries abound in
the unraveling of their biology.
Astonishing discoveries resulting from
monarch experiments underway are
being announced several times a year:
the monarch’s scales are solar collec-
tors; their antennae hold a second
compass that works with another one
in their brains; monarchs use a light-
dependent, inclination magnetic com-
pass to help them orient southward
during migration. Each new bit of
information provides another small
piece of a fascinating puzzle. What
makes a monarch work is part of an
Cenizo
ongoing dialogue between humans
and nature and our place in this inter-
dependent world.
Why all this fuss about an insect
when the people who live in the
Reserve are at risk as well? Why
protest the death of the North
American prairies and the integrity of
our water supplies when there are stag-
gering amounts of money to be made
from corn, soybeans and the chemicals
that make it possible?
I am reminded of how Brower
explained the question in a piece by
Derrick A. Jackson in the Boston
Globe:
“People ask me, ‘What’s the differ-
ence whether we have a Monarch
migration or not?’ I say, ‘Why do we
care about the Mona Lisa or classical
music?’ We care because it is a cultur-
al treasure. We have to start viewing
the natural world as a cultural treas-
ure.”
I am grateful to the monarchs, tiny
but tough survivors, for teaching me
about the environment they depend on
for life, leading me to their sources of
nectar and making me think even
harder about the importance of being
a guardian of the natural world.
Fourth Quarter 2014
9