monarchs

[John Grehan]

>Alana Edwards <mariposa at MCIONE.com>, a local butterfly enthusiast, sent
>me the following request:
>
>> I was wondering if in your internet surfing if you've ever come across a
>> page or a person that knows about the ancestry of the Monarch:  which
>> species did it evolve from?  are there fossils?  etc.  Any studies done
>>or articles written that discuss the evolution of Danaus species?  Their
>>movement throughout the world?
>> My project in Biogeography is on them and I'm having difficulty locating
>>resources.  I
>> borrowed a book called Milkweed Butterflies but it is VERY technical.

I wrote a biogeography paper that included the monarch genus. It is titled
"A panbiogeographic perspective for pre-Cretaceous Angiosperm-Lepidoptera
coevolution" in Australian Systematic
Botany, 4: 91-110. There may be an error in one of the distribution
illustrations so the source
cited should be checked.

Sincerely, John Grehan