Government views Monarch Butterfly Releases as a threat toWesternMilkweeds

[Paul Cherubini]

Stan Gorodenski wrote:

> > Dr. Vane-Wright
> > attributes this rapid spread across the Pacfic and Atlantic
> > in the mid-1800's to hitch-hiking on the new fast moving steam
> > powered ships that replaced the old slow wind powered ships.
 
> What scientific data does he have to support his statement? 

He doesn't have any "data". He has just noted a glaring lack
of any records of the Monarch outside of North or South America
prior to the invention of steam powered ships around 1850.
Then a flood of new records appeared between 1850-1890.

> I also have to wonder about the use of terms like 'weedy species'.
> Normally, a weed is a plant growing where we do not want it to grow.
> Used in reference to the Monarch implies to the general public that it
> is a pest we do not want.  Do we really want to convey this kind of
> message?  Doesn't the use of such terms have a tendency to mislead?

I mean weedy in the sense that plant ecologists use it - a plant
that thrives on disturbed ground. Common species of milkweed 
thrive where the soil has been disturbed by natural forces (such as normal
soil erosion on slopes and flood plains) or by man in the
course of road, railroad, real estate and agricultural development. 

Anyone traveling to Bermuda, Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia 
or Spain will note monarchs are using milkweeds growing almost 
exclusively on ground that has been disturbed by human activity.  Not only
that, these milkweeds are exotic species that originated in Africa
or the West Indies.  So without human assistance, the monarch
would not exist as it does now on dozens of Pacific Islands or in
Bermuda, The Canary Islands, southern Europe or Madagascar.

Paul Cherubini

 
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